PCCW Media has raised $110million from Chinese investment group Hony Capital, Taiwannese chipmaker Foxconn, and Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek for a stake in its subsidiary PCCW OTT.
Hony, Foxconn and Temasek will own approximately 18% of the enlarged issued share capital of PCCW OTT for a total consideration of US$110 million. PCCW Media will remain as the controlling shareholder of PCCW OTT.
This strategic investment will strengthen PCCW OTT’s ability to enhance its core value proposition of relevant content including distinctive original productions, and to continue to deploy the latest technologies and leverage its patents in video streaming and encoding to offer the best customer experience.
As a rapidly expanding business, PCCW OTT aims to increase its penetration within the existing markets where it has made significant inroads as well as to expand its footprint in other high-growth markets.
PCCW OTT has footprint over in 24 markets globally, including video streaming services under the Viu and Vuclip brands as well as a music streaming service MOOV.
Launched in October 2015, Viu has over 12 million monthly active users as of June 2017. The service operates on a dual-model of an ad-supported tier of service and a premium subscription tier of service with more features.
Vuclip joined the PCCW family in May 2015. It provides web-based and short-form content video services in 19 markets including India, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa and other emerging markets.
MOOV is Hong Kong’s first and largest multi-platform digital streaming music service and ranked number one on brand awareness and user satisfaction in Hong Kong*. It is also available in Vietnam.
Janice Lee, Managing Director, PCCW Media Group
Our focus on content, pricing and technology that are locally relevant in various markets, together with our fast tracked rollout across the region, has enabled Viu to become a leading OTT video service in Asia. We are very excited to have Hony, Foxconn and Temasek join us as strategic shareholders.
John Zhao, Chairman and CEO, Hony Capital
Hong Kong is the forefront of international collaboration responding to the Belt and Road Initiatives, and Viu at present has laid out effective business map in Southeast Asian countries along the Belt and Road, which will no doubt play an essential and unique role to help the culture, content as well as creative ideas to travel abroad.
