Viu Original leads in Asia with over 900 episodes
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April 30, 2018Viu Original leads in Asia with over 900 episodes
Viu Original leads in Asia with over 900 episodes of locally produced content by award-winning filmmakers and local talent scouted through crowd-sourcing
Establishing an OTT video eco-system with TV stations and advertisers
PCCW – HONG KONG, April 30, 2018 – Viu, a leading pan-regional OTT video service by PCCW Media Group, is set on a course to actively develop its Viu Original initiative this year which will see 70 titles and over 900 episodes of locally produced content by the end of 2018. Produced in Indian, Chinese, Indonesian and Arabic languages, Viu Original spans the full spectrum of TV content genres and has extended its production scope to movies.
Viu Original enjoys great popularity and support among viewers who embrace Viu’s freemium model, which provides free access (ad-support) content for all viewers while offering enhanced features to premium subscribers. Viu now boasts over 16 million monthly active users across Asia.
Ms. Janice Lee, Managing Director, PCCW Media Group, said, “With the evolution of OTT streaming service and consumers’ adoption, quality content with strong relevance is key to our continued high engagement with viewers. Viu aims to introduce refreshing local production in various markets, including Spotlight 2 produced by Bollywood director Vikram Bhatt, and Kenapa Harus Bule? by award-winning Indonesian director Andri Cune. Our latest Viu Original series development of The Bridge is a remake of a popular international TV series with Asia context and filmed in Singapore and Malaysia. By working with top tier local talent and production houses, we fulfil our brand promise to provide Viu-ers with compelling localized entertainment.”
Besides working with top award-winning directors and production talent in the markets, Viu employs a highly innovative way to come up with new ideas for Viu Original. For example, in Indonesia, Viu “crowd sources” Viu Original ideas in an event called Viu Pitching Forum, where young filmmakers are encouraged to pitch their ideas before a team of renowned experts, including award-winning producers, directors and scriptwriters. Viu will fund shortlisted ideas and collaborate with professional filmmakers to produce them for airing.
Back to its home base in Hong Kong, Viu enlists local YouTubers and KOLs to join the production team. Such an initiative maximizes engagement with the local creative community to create content relevant and engaging to the Millennials.
Ms. Lee added, “We are encouraged by the overwhelming positive response from viewers for Viu Original and we will continue to create many more fresh and engaging originals tailored to our Millennial Viu-ers. We are especially proud to provide a platform for young talent in local markets to showcase their creativity and gain popularity among our viewers.”
Viu Original has recently launched an array of full feature movies. High Jack, which is co-produced with award-winning Phantom Films in India, is scheduled to be screened in 450 Indian theatres followed by viewing on the Viu platform. Kenapa Harus Bule?, a Viu Original satirical comedy movie with a deep message of valuing inner beauty and pride of being Indonesian, was screened in Indonesia recently.
Working along its broadcast partners, Viu aims to bring Viu Original to free-to-air and pay-TV audience around the world. Viu has collaborated with Zoom TV, a pay-TV channel owned by Sun Network, and Gemini TV, a Bollywood pay-TV channel, to deliver its original content to free TV and pay-TV audience in India.
Viu can also connect and engage with Millennials and thereby increases its appeal to advertisers targeting them through Viu Original’s engaging content. Drama series and variety shows co-produced with advertisers have been gaining traction with these audiences and advertisers’ response to Viu Original is stellar with Viu adding an enviable list of advertisers to its roster.
Mr. Achmad Alkatiri, Chief Marketing Officer of Lazada Indonesia, said, “We believe that engaging in an innovative format brings us closer to our Millennial audience. Viu helps us connect with our audience through a compelling story that they appreciate.”
Mr. MK Machaiah (Mac), Chief Innovation Officer of Mindshare South Asia, also welcomes this initiative by Viu: “We are always discovering and experimenting with novel areas of content via machine learning, creativity and adaptive marketing in order to curate focused and sharp solutions for our brands. Smart content is the need of the hour and this collaboration with Viu has helped us connect with the right audience effectively. Viu continues to support us in the brand journey to engage with the millennial audience through premium and commercially vibrant content and we are confident that together we will set higher benchmarks.”
Ms. Janice Lee announces the Viu Original 2018 lineup at the APOS in Bali, Indonesia.
Viu Original lineup highlights:
| Drama and Variety |
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Spotlight 2 (Hindi) – A musical Viu Original capturing the highs, lows and eventual roaring success of music star Vicky as well as his passionate, turbulent relationship with his childhood sweetheart. – A story of a rockstar who touched the heights of stardom and became an overnight sensation. Over the course of his quest to stardom, he left behind his loved ones who inspired him to be who he is today. With all the success getting to his head, Vicky is now a different person, a snob, an arrogant human being and a self-destructive drug addict heading towards his own downfall. – This soulful story and musical extravaganza is brought to the audience by Viu and Vikram Bhatt. |
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Love, Lust & Confusion (Hindi) – Love, Lust & Confusion is a comedy of errors and a coming of age story – with a gamut of confusions and perplexities, love and desires, choices and dilemmas mixed with an ensemble of lovable characters who depict today’s confused selves of the millennials. – Revolving around the life of a young girl Paroma Sarkar, Love, Lust & Confusion is the perfect depiction of the age of indecisiveness, age of physical exploration and the age of confusion. The show also explores the element of polyamory and depicts the perspective of youngsters towards it. – The premise sets the stage for two people who meet each other at the crossroads of their lives followed by a series of misadventures involving themselves and others. |
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It Happened in Hong Kong (Hindi) – In today’s world, one tends to lose oneself in the hustle and bustle of competing in the rat race. This story is about two individuals juggling between their personal and professional lives in the quest to rediscover themselves. It Happened in Hong Kong is a mini-series that explores the small big moments that happen when you travel and open up to new experiences including meeting strangers. – Over a solo trip, Amol and Aahana end up meeting accidentally and hit it off from the get go but their beautiful journey with new found lingering feelings comes to an abrupt pause as their personal life comes into conflict with their rediscovered selves. – Does every story have an ending? Will they get closure over theirs? Or is their story an eternal one that starts with new beginnings… – Watch Aahana and Amol as they let their story unfold in Hong Kong. |
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Sunshine (Bahasa Indonesia) – A story of a successful dad with a twist to his love story. When his young son questions him about his life before marriage, including how he met and fell in love with the boy’s mother, he recounts his young romance with four women, changing their names to Moon, Star, Sun and Earth, so that his son can undertake a journey to find ut who eventually became his mother. |
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Lost in Shell (Chinese) – An English girl went to search for her roots based on the travelogue/diary of her dead mother. She travelled all the way to Hong Kong and ended up not only finding her roots but also her love. Over 10,000 km, eight time zones and a gap of 25 years, she found what was lost. |
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Full Time Mommy Holidays (Chinese) – With work that never ends, being a full-time mom is probably the hardest job one will ever have. In the show, four dedicated moms get to take a break from their ordinary lives as a stay-at-home mom and enjoy a vacation in Japan while their families are trying to survive without mother for a week. With the help from five celebrity nannies, this could be heaven or this could be hell! |
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The Bridge – A body is left on the border of Singapore and Malaysia. Two investigators, one from each country, must work together to catch a killer bent on highlighting social problems that they think are plaguing people on both sides of the border. – Adapted from the global phenomenon, The Bridge, which has been aired in 188 countries, appeals to the diverse arrays of people, cuisines, and ethnicities that call this area home, highlighting both the diversity and similarity between the two countries. |
| Movies | |
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High Jack (Hindi) – Directed by Akarsh Khurana, the film, is the new age screwball comedy features digital sensation Sumeet Vyas, Pyaar ka Punchnama fame Sonnalli Seygall, RJ Mantra, Kumud Mishra along with Nipun Dharmadhikari and Amey Wagh. – The plot centers on a group of first time hijackers who get themselves into hilarious situations, following a comedy of errors with interesting twists and turns. |
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Kenapa Harus Bule? (Bahasa Indonesia) – Pipin Kartika is a dark-skinned Indonesian woman with thick rough hair who always wears heavy make-up. Since she’s a little girl, she’s always been bullied because of her look that is considered un-pretty. – She grew up obsessed to marry a Caucasian man (bule) whom she believed would find her exotic. She has dated dozens of Caucasian boyfriends but none of them wanted to have serious relationships with her. Pipin started to worry; she is not getting any younger and her target to marry a “bule” before she turns 30 is approaching fast. – Following her best friend’s advice, Pipin moved to Bali to find her soul mate and love. |
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