Streaming bundles are coming to Asia! Viu and iQIYI are teaming up on a single streaming subscription across Southeast Asia, pairing the former’s Korean-led catalogue with the latter’s Chinese and local-language slate. The bundle, a joining of forces in one of the world’s most cutthroat streaming markets, was unveiled from a stage Wednesday morning,during a panel with the two services’ executives at the APOS conference in Bali.
The bundled plan will launch in the second half of 2026 across Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia, the executives said.
Under the deal, both services will be billed together but consumed separately, and sold directly through the Viu and iQIYI International websites. The pairing was pitched as complementary: Viu brings the Korean dramas that have anchored its regional rise, along with Chinese series, Southeast Asian productions, its Viu Original slate and Viu Shorts microdramas, while iQIYI adds Chinese dramas and films, anime, variety shows and a growing roster of local-language originals — among them the Thai drama Khemjira, the Indonesian drama The Other Sister and the variety show Running Man Thailand.
The new partners didn’t reveal pricing for the bundled subscription.
“Asian content is at the heart of what our audiences love,” said Janice Lee, Viu’s CEO and managing director of PCCW Media Group, adding that “great Asian content should be more accessible.”
Yang Xianghua, who heads iQIYI’s overseas business, called the bundle “a pivotal milestone in our overseas business in Southeast Asia,” built on “combining our highly complementary libraries into a unified subscription.”
Southeast Asia is among the toughest streaming markets anywhere — a wildly diverse, price-sensitive, piracy-prone region of more than 600 million people where Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon’s Prime Video battle deep-pocketed local and regional players. The region has seen several locally targeted streaming services flame out over the years, from the Singtel-backed Hooq to the once-hyped iflix.
The new bundle should help the two mid-tier services pool catalogues and blunt churn while minimizing the onerous cost of trying to compete on spending with the global giants.
Viu, controlled by Hong Kong’s PCCW with France’s Canal+ as a major shareholder, has built an impressively lasting presence across Asia, the Middle East and Africa on a dual model of advertising and subscriptions. iQIYI, the NASDAQ-listed Chinese streaming giant, has turned to overseas markets like Southeast Asia for growth as the fiercely competitive home market has matured.
The move also follows a broader trend of stand-alone streaming apps giving way to bundling and partnerships — among them Disney+’s recent deal with CJ ENM’s TVing in Japan, and Viu’s own prior bundle with HBO Max, launched in Southeast Asia last year.
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