Viu, the streaming service owned by Hong Kong’s PCCW Media Group, and iQiyi International, the overseas arm of Chinese streamer iQiyi, will sell a single combined subscription across Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia in the second half of 2026. The two services announced the bundle at the APOS conference in Bali, held June 16–18, 2026. Viu reported around 13 million paid subscribers across Asia, the Middle East, and South Africa as of the first quarter of 2026.
The deal joins two regional rivals, not two brands under one owner. It signals a shift in how Asian content reaches some of the world’s youngest, most mobile-first audiences.
Two streaming rivals just agreed to stop competing for the same wallet. Viu and iQiyi International will package their separate libraries into one subscription across four Southeast Asian markets, launching in the second half of 2026. On paper it reads as a content deal. It is closer to an economics deal.
Both services chase the same viewer, spend on the same kinds of Korean and Chinese originals, and pay separately to find and keep that viewer. The bundle changes the math. By sharing a funnel, they each pay less to acquire a subscriber and, in theory, lose fewer of them. That is the part the press release frames as convenience for viewers.
What the announcement quietly enables is more interesting than what it says. Two regional players are testing whether bundling can do for them what scale does for the global giants — without either company having to grow alone. The question is whether Southeast Asia’s notoriously price-sensitive viewers will pay for the combination at all.
The bundle is a cost play wearing a content costume
The scale behind it is real. Viu reported roughly 13 million paid subscribers across Asia, the Middle East, and South Africa in the first quarter of 2026, with strong traction in exactly the four markets the bundle targets, according to PCCW’s 2025 annual results. iQiyi International’s Southeast Asian base sits inside iQiyi’s 101 million total members reported for the fourth quarter of 2025.
Janice Lee, chief executive of Viu and managing director of PCCW Media Group, has argued in industry forums that Asian titles now drive most of Viu’s engagement in Southeast Asia, and that bundling similar services cuts churn and marketing costs while widening reach. That is the real logic. Customer acquisition is the expensive part of streaming, not the content alone.
Yang Xianghua, president of iQiyi and its overseas business lead, has said the company’s regional strategy leans on premium Chinese originals, local-language partnerships, and flexible pricing to compete with global streamers. The bundle is the next step in that flexible-pricing thinking.
Here is the catch worth keeping in a separate sentence. The companies have announced the alliance. They have not announced the price, the revenue split, or the telco partners — and in this region, price is the whole game. Guy Bisson, executive director at Ampere Analysis, has noted that Southeast Asia is one of the most price-sensitive streaming regions, where local platforms increasingly lean on partnerships and telco bundles to survive against global rivals.
Two specialists ganging up on the global giants
The size of the prize explains the urgency. Indonesia’s SVOD market was worth about USD 508 million in 2025, growing close to 10 percent a year through 2029, according to Statista’s market outlook. That makes it the largest single market the bundle targets, and the chart above shows how it sits within a regional online video economy that Media Partners Asia values at USD 6–7 billion.
This is a race with clear lines. Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO services lead on paid penetration. Viu often ranks top three by engagement, driven by Korean and local originals, says Dhivya T, senior analyst at Media Partners Asia. The Viu–iQiyi bundle is two regional specialists pooling strength rather than facing the giants one at a time.
Vivek Couto, executive director at the same firm, has argued that alliances among Southeast Asian streamers will speed up as content and acquisition costs climb. The same firm’s data informs both readings, so treat the engagement ranking as one method among several.
So the deal comes back to its founding bet. Two rivals decided that sharing a customer is cheaper than fighting for one. Whether viewers reward that depends entirely on a price neither company has yet named.
Beyond the headline
The bigger picture
The bundle shows Southeast Asia shifting from a market ruled by global platforms to one where regional aggregators stitch catalogues together for local tastes. Instead of chasing scale with one mega-service, companies are testing modular combinations that plug into telco and prepaid systems. That model could later travel to Africa, Latin America, and low-income segments in Western markets.
The money trail
Strip away the content marketing and this is about cheaper acquisition and retention. Both companies spend heavily on Korean, Chinese, and local originals. Sharing a funnel lets them wring more value from each hit while pushing some billing and distribution onto telecom and payment partners who already own the customer relationship.
The reach
For Western media groups, the non-obvious twist is that future rights deals and co-productions will increasingly run through Asian streamers that control clustered regional audiences. A US studio selling a Korean or Thai series may find bundles like this acting as regional gatekeepers — shaping which shows travel, how they are subtitled, and what expats finally pay.
What the bundle changes for you before it launches
With a commercial launch due in the second half of 2026 and key terms still unannounced, three groups have reasons to track this now.
- Investors tracking APAC streaming
Watch the first post-launch earnings from PCCW and iQiyi after the bundle goes live. If both flag lower churn and higher revenue per user in Southeast Asia, the model is working. Flat or unbroken-out numbers point to cautious expansion. Management typically details regional growth on their investor relations sites.
- Expats and Asian-diaspora viewers in Southeast Asia
Expect the combined subscription to cost less than two separate plans, but confirm the price market by market before dropping a standalone service. The catalogue is heavily Korean, Chinese, Thai, and local scripted content — not sports or Western franchises — so check that your must-watch titles are actually included.
- Compliance and risk teams assessing OTT partnerships
Before judging partnership or investment risk, review Indonesia’s Private Electronic System Operator registration rules on the Kominfo portal at jdih.kominfo.go.id. Foreign streamers must register, respond to takedown orders within 24 hours, and maintain data access for authorities.
Explainer
- SVOD
- Subscription video-on-demand: streaming services paid for by a recurring fee rather than advertising or pay-per-title rentals. Netflix, Viu, and iQiyi International all run on this model in Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, SVOD makes up roughly half of a regional online video economy that Media Partners Asia values at USD 6–7 billion, with the rest driven largely by ad-supported viewing.
- Ampere Analysis
- A London-based research firm specialising in media, content, and streaming market data. Its analysts track subscriber penetration, pricing, and competitive positioning across global markets. Its work flags Southeast Asia as one of the most price-sensitive streaming regions, where telco bundles often decide whether a platform survives against global rivals.
- Media Partners Asia
- An independent advisory and research firm focused on media, telecom, and internet markets across Asia-Pacific. It publishes closely watched rankings of streaming services by users and engagement. Its data places Viu in the top three by engagement in several Southeast Asian markets, a position built largely on Korean and local-language originals rather than licensed Western content.
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