CANAL+ takes share in Viu to drive streaming in Asia
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Editor
| 22 June 2023
Looking to take a major step in developing Asia as its next growth engine, leading European pay-TV provider CANAL+ has announced the formation of a strategic partnership with Hong Kong’s PCCW to accelerate the growth of OTT video service Viu which boasts presence across Asia, the Middle East, and South Africa.
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As part of the partnership, CANAL+ will become a significant minority shareholder in Viu through a staggered investment of US$300 million which includes an initial investment of US$200 million resulting in CANAL+ holding a 26.1% stake in Viu. In addition to the $300 million, a further investment, at CANAL+ option, could result in an increase of CANAL+’s stake in Viu to 51%.

PCCW sees taking onboard CANAL+ as an important strategic investor as a recognition of Viu’s current position in the video streaming markets it services in addition to what it believes will be significant growth opportunities ahead. With over 66 million monthly active users (MAU) and 12 million paid subscribers, Viu has been ranked as the top video streaming platform in terms of MAU and second in terms of subscribers and streaming minutes amongst both global and regional plain Southeast Asia.

Having established a dual model of advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) and subscription video-on-demand, (SVOD), Viu offers premium regional and local content including series and lifestyle programming in different genres from top content providers with language localisation, as well as premium original productions under the Viu Original brand. In 2022, Viu recorded over US$250 million in revenue, representing a growth of 36% year over year.

The new strategic partnership is designed to enable the further growth of Viu, using the global strength and expertise of CANAL+ through various initiatives including collaboration on premium productions and content creation, expansion of global market reach for Viu, and continual user experience improvement.

“I am extremely happy to announce this partnership with PCCW. CANAL+ already has leading market positions in Europe and Africa. We are now looking forward to developing Asia as an additional growth engine for the group. Our investment in Viu is a major step towards achieving this goal,” commented CANAL+ Group CEO Maxime Saada. “Viu is already a business with scale, with its hybrid AVOD and SVOD business model and focus on local content, it has all the ingredients to deliver superior growth and continue to be a leading service in the region and beyond.”

Added PCCW acting group managing director and group chief financial officer Susanna Hui: “We are very pleased to embark on a partnership with CANAL+ to take Viu to the next level with the prospect of global synergies coming from both CANAL+ and PCCW. With Viu having established its leadership as a pan-regional streaming service, we believe this is the right time to introduce a strategic partner into the business that would see us furthering our global expansion and growth by unleashing the potential of the Viu business at scale and to create further value for our shareholders.”