France’s Canal+ Buys Minority Stake in Asian Streamer Viu

Patrick Brzeski
·2 min read

France’s Canal+ is getting into the Asian streaming business.

The French pay-TV giant revealed Wednesday that it is buying a 26.1 percent stake in Hong Kong-based OTT video service Viu for $200 million as part of a staggered investment of $300 million, subject to certain conditions. As part of the deal, Canal+ also has the option of paying an additional sum to up its stake to 51 percent.

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The partners said the deal “will allow Canal+ to take a major step in developing Asia as its next growth engine.”

Launched in 2015 with backing from Hong Kong’s telecom company PCCW, Viu’s video service offers both advertising and subscription-supported options in 16 territories in Asia, the Middle East and South Africa. The company says it has over 66 million monthly active users and 12 million paid subscribers. The bulk of those users are believed to be based in Asia.

Viu has specialized in licensing and producing original Korean content, but it also creates original content in Southeast Asian territories including Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. In 2022, the company reported over $250 million in revenue, representing growth of 36 percent year over year.

“CANAL+ already has leading market positions in Europe and Africa,” said Maxime Saada, CANAL+’s CEO. “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.”

Added Janice Lee, Viu’s CEO and a managing director at PCCW: “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.”

June 21, 7:50 am PST Updated story and headline to correct that Canal’s initial investment was $200 million.

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