Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) has partnered with Viu to offer more than 10,000 hours of premium Asian content in 2016 including from Korea’s top broadcasters KBS, MBC, CJ and SBS.
Viu is an Over-the-Top (OTT) video-on-demand (VOD) service from Vuclip, a PCCW media company. Part of its contents are offered on a freemium basis, allowing Malaysian viewers using any local Internet service providers (ISPs) to access thousands of hours of content for free, ad supported.
As part of the partnership, all Unifi and Streamyx customers will be given 3-months free access to the premium contents on Viu, starting 15 March 2016. After the 3-months period, TM customers could choose to opt out from the service or continue accessing it for RM10/month which will reflect in their TM billing. TM said it will share more details soon.
The Viu contents offered includes 3,700 hours of the latest Korean drama and variety series such as Oh My Venus, Moorim School and Six Flying Dragons, along with classic award winning library shows such as My Love from the Star, The Heirs and the all time favorite The Running Man.
Selected latest Korean dramas will be available subtitled in English after 8 hours of their Korean premiere and in Bahasa Malaysia within 24 hours, to provide a fresh and localised experience to consumers. Simplified Chinese subtitle will also be made available.
Additionally, more exciting content will be available from regional and international marquee studios — Primeworks Distribution, Media Prima, MD Entertainment Indonesia, Vision Plus Entertainment, Double Vision, Media Quiz, Huace, Media Asia, Transmedia and Caracol, as Vuclip already has long term partnerships with more than 250 top studios globally.
Viu is built on Vuclip’s patented Dynamic Adaptive Transcoding technology, leverages Vuclip’s eight-year history of providing streaming video on demand entertainment experiences to emerging markets. Content is kept highly secure using world class digital rights management technologies integrated with industry leading service providers Verimatrix and Vualto.
Commenting on the partnership, Tan Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Group Chief Executive Officer, TM said: “As the nation’s Convergence Champion, we are excited to be a strategic partner of PCCW, through its media company to bring Viu for the first time here in Malaysia – offering an even wider choice of content and entertainment to our broadband customers nationwide. We are confident that this partnership will enhance the value of the services that we have provided to our customers in addition to the HyppTV service and we believe that content should be made available everywhere and accessible via multiscreen devices, in line with TM’s brand promise of ‘Life Made Easier’.”
“Further to the exciting content available on our HyppTV platform, our broadband customers will be thrilled to enjoy this unique variety of the latest Korean, Chinese, Bollywood, Tamil, Indonesian and Malaysian programmes, as we continue to deliver the best and wholesome entertainment experience to Malaysians,” he added.
Meanwhile, Janice Lee, Managing Director, PCCW Media Group commented: “Viu has been very well received in Hong Kong and Singapore. We expect our launch in Malaysia to be equally successful, especially given our strategic partnership with TM.”
Viu is accessible via mobile phones and tablets as well as desktops by downloading the Viu app on Google Play or by typing in www.viu.com in the desktop browser.
Malaysian using any locals ISPs can also subscribe to the premium portion of the service which includes an ad free experience, for RM10 per month. Apart from TM billing, Malaysians could pay for Viu using debit/credit card, Maxis billing or Google Billing.
