French group CANAL+ invests US$300m in PCCW's Viu to expand video streaming market

French broadcaster CANAL+ will acquire a significant minority stake in communications company PCCW’s Viu unit as part of the two company’s strategic partnership. This aims to expand the presence of Viu’s video streaming business across Asia, the Middle East and South Africa, as well as to allow Viu to compete with Netflix and other global streaming giants. 

As part of the partnership agreement, the French company has agreed to invest US$300m in Viu, which includes an initial investment of US$200m resulting in CANAL+ holding a 26.1% stake in Viu. In addition to the US$300m, a further investment, at CANAL+ option, could result in an increase of CANAL+’s stake in Viu to 51%.

This new strategic partnership aims to enable the further growth of Viu, leveraging 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. The partnership will allow CANAL+ to take a major step in developing Asia as its next growth engine.

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, PCCW's spokesperson said it will continue to work with a myriad of partners in the ecosystem across the Viu footprint, including over 40 telcos, connected device partners, digital payment and eCommerce partners, amongst others, apart from getting CANAL+ on board as its strategic investor. 

Partnering with CANAL+ as an important strategic investor is a recognition of Viu’s position in the video streaming markets spanning Asia, the Middle East and South Africa and the significant growth opportunities ahead, according to the release. With over 66 million monthly active users (MAU) and 12 million paid subscribers, Viu has been consistently 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 players in Southeast Asia. 

Having established a robust 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 brand “Viu Original”. In 2022, Viu recorded over US$250 million in revenue, representing a growth of 36% year over year.

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Commenting on the partnership, Maxime Saada, CANAL+ Group CEO, said, “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. 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.”

Meanwhile, Susanna Hui, PCCW acting group managing director and group chief financial officer, said: “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. 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.”

“I am impressed with what the Viu team has been able to achieve so far," added Jacques du Puy, CANAL+ international CEO. "We are now looking forward to supporting Viu’s rapid growth over the coming years, including through synergies with our existing operations in Vietnam and Myanmar as well as in Africa and the Middle East.”

Viu has been committed to creating and transforming its media business into an international play by tapping into larger addressable markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and South Africa, according to Janice Lee, Viu CEO and PCCW media managing director. "Having created a robust streaming business, we are excited to have the addition of CANAL+ as a strategic investor to further accelerate growth by drawing on CANAL+’s global strength in premium productions, content creation and distribution expertise. We look forward to the next phase of our business with the combined strengths of PCCW and CANAL+ behind Viu," she added.

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