FilMart: Viu Uploads ‘No Sleep, No FOMO’ Reality Show for Millennials
“No Sleep No FOMO” is an eight-episode pan-regional travelog show that Asian streaming firm Viu hopes will help it win over more millennial generation audiences. It harnesses the potential of local social media celebrities and their 12 million followers.
The show features “Running Man” star Kim Jong-kook, Korean musician Eric Nam and Singapore actor Paul Foster. Other social media celebrities, or key opinion leaders, include Hana Tam, Kevin Woo, Alexander Lee Eusebio, Benjamin Kheng, Laureen Uy, and Taya Rogers.
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Janice Lee, MD of Viu’s parent PCCW Media, said the show adopts a YouTube format, with bite-sized, 8-10 minute episodes that are friendly for mobile devices. It also experiments with using the KOLs’ followers as co-creators.
One of the tasks the celebrities were set was to become a wedding crasher. Followers then supplied tips and got the stars an invitation to a Malay wedding. “It is challenging to involve audience’s during production. It is possible for this show because this is a reality show,” Lee said.
Viu has 30 million monthly users in 16 markets, from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, and was recently launched in South Africa. Lee argues that the platform has further to go, given Asia’s population and its high digital literacy.
Asia now has many locally-based OTT players, but the challenge is to deliver enough of the local content that audiences prefer. Viu last year produced 70 original titles, of which 30 came from ViuTV, PCCW’s Hong Kong terrestrial broadcaster.
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