Korean Drama Encounter to Stream on Viu

Viu has acquired exclusive OTT rights in Asia for the new romantic K-drama series Encounter from CJ ENM.

The drama will premiere on November 28 in Korea and will be streamed on Viu in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, fully subtitled in local languages and as quickly as four hours after telecast in Korea. Produced by CJ ENM’s Studio Dragon (What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim, Goblin), Encounter stars Song Hye Kyo (Descendants of the Sun) and Park Bo Gum (Reply 1998, Love in the Moonlight).

Janice Lee, managing director of PCCW Media Group, said, “Our strategic collaboration with CJ ENM has grown since the launch of Viu to now cover 13 markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Our collaboration brings the best quality and most popular Korean productions from CJ ENM to our highly engaged fans. Bringing Encounter to our Viu-ers in the region is an example of our commitment to offering the best and most extensive Asian content, including Korean, Japanese and Chinese content as well as Viu Original that we produce in local languages in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, India and Hong Kong. With extensive content offerings, the video views on our platform have more than doubled to 1.2 billion in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period last year.”

Chul-yeon Kim, senior VP of CJ ENM, said, “Since our collaboration with Viu started in 2015, we have been working closely to expand the offering of our quality content in the region. As a platform for Korean content with the most current and signature titles including both drama and variety shows, Viu is a great and effective partner to reach out to overseas audiences. Viu’s express subtitling, on-ground marketing and publicity, as well as its fan insights in each market via its big data and experience, allow our programs to access larger audiences through its highly engaged platforms. We appreciate Viu for its proactive local promotion to raise the profile of our shows.”

Helen Sou, senior VP of digital media at PCCW Media Group, said, “Korean drama remains a top favorite among Asian viewers. Viu’s content collaborations with the top five Korean broadcasters—CJ ENM, KBS, MBC, SBS and JTBC—enriches and differentiates our content offerings, giving us an exclusive window to close to 90 percent of their latest simulcast dramas every year. Since 2015, our collaboration with CJ ENM has expanded from drama to variety shows and tvN movies. Our content offering will continue to become more extensive, considering our simulcast program hours from CJ ENM alone have doubled up in the last few years.”

Se-jung Jang, general manager of Studio Dragon, commented, “Encounter is a culmination of our unflinching commitment to quality production, from a star-studded cast, over a month of intensive on-location filming in Cuba, in the Caribbean, to our expert producing director and scriptwriter. By leveraging Viu’s OTT platform, we believe we can maximize our reach to viewers, enabling them to enjoy Encounter anytime, anywhere.”