Canal+ Might Look To Strengthen The Bond Between VIU And MultiChoice

With over 45 million monthly active users and 15 million subscribers, Viu ranks amongst the top 3 SVOD/AVOD players in Southeast Asia in terms of revenues. It is operated by VIU International Ltd., a joint venture between PCCW and Canal+.

VIU serves as one of few broadcasters in the streaming regime to curate local content. Aside from licensing shows like Uzalo and Skeem Saam from the SABC, they've also been dubbing various international shows to Zulu and Afrikaans.

They've been creating a lot of buzz for their Zulu dubbed kdramas with shows like Iqhawe Labafundi (High School: Return of a Gangster) and Intengo Yothando (Pear Perfect).

Alongside Canal+'s crown jewel MultiChoice, they've been bulking up on Afrikaans dubbed shows with Landman, Die Stokman and Eerste Liefde Laaste.

As Canal+ continues to build up it's stake in VIU and make further enhancements to MultiChoice. One of the likely outcomes awaiting the two is a potential partnership.

Showmax is going dark soon and this gives VIU ample room to license some of its content. Although, Canal+ plans to launch a dedicated app don't be surprised if VIU alongside DStv Stream were to bulked up on this app.

Same goes for the content, Canal+ Afrique benefitted from the MultiChoice tie-up as they got access to M-Net's local archives and SuperSport. MultiChoice had exclusive agreements with certain suppliers which extended to include them.

Canal+'s stake in VIU is sitting at 37,2% and when they do get it to 51% or before that. Don't be surprised if we got to see these dubbed shows from VIU on (a) separate DStv channel(s) if not Mzansi Magic and KykNET.

MultiChoice had been bulking up on the dubbed stuff with the launch of Landman on KykNET. Prior to this was the rollout of Star Khanya with the future rollout of Zee Dunia in East Africa.

According to some insiders, MultiChoice has more dubbed content they're planning to rollout on DStv and since last year they've been talks about allocating new channels. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if VIU's scraps were one of them.

MultiChoice did away with the English feed of TLNovelas and interesting how the remaining dubbed channels all have to appeal to the local consumer. You have Telemundo (English), Zee World (Sesotho and Swahili) and Star Khanya (Zulu).