Viu video-streaming platform launched in South Africa

South Africa has another new player in the increasingly competitive video entertainment market. Viu, owned by Hong Kong-headquartered telecommunications operator PCCW, joins MultiChoice’s Showmax, Vodacom’s Video Play, Cell C’s Black, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and others vying for consumers’ attention.

Viu is PCCW’s second attempt at launching a video-streaming service in South Africa. In 2015, it launched OnTapTV, but the service failed to gain much traction.

Viu is available in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, and now in South Africa.

The premium app, which offers a hybrid of both free and paid-for content, has more than 30 million monthly active users. The company released about 900 episodes of “Viu Originals” in 2018.

Viu South Africa will use a similar “freemium” business model. It will offer local and regional content. “Viu’s programming strategy is inclusive and locally relevant premium content in each market, and South Africa will be no different. This will be achieved through its partnerships with e.tv, the SABC and Vodacom,” it said in a statement.

It has already licensed popular local productions such as Imbewu, Uzalo, Scandal and Skeem Saam.

The Viu app is available in Apple’s App Store, Google Play and the Huawei App Gallery. It has partnered with Vodacom to provide greater access to customers with “innovative products that will give customers seamless access to Viu Premium in the near future”.

The Viu Premium subscription is available at R69/month, R20/week or R5/day. It offers payment through debit and credit cards, in-app billing, Google billing and mobile carrier billing.  — © 2019 NewsCentral Media