iQIYI Partners With Media Prima And Celcom To Provide Exciting Local Content On Demand
Fans can look forward to more than 1,000 hours of premium local content by the end of 2021.
By Laila Zain — 25 Mar 2021, 04:45 PM
iQIYI International announces landmark partnerships with Primeworks Studio, the content production and distribution arm of Media Prima, as well as Celcom Axiata Berhad (Celcom), one of the nation’s largest telecom companies
By the end of 2020, iQIYI had grown its user base by more than 15 times, and is looking to solidify their commitment to Malaysian entertainment through its partnership with Primeworks Studios.
"We are already the fastest-growing streaming service in the country over the last 12 months, but we want to be a mainstay driver of the local content ecosystem and build deep, long-lasting relationships with our users and partners," said Dinesh Ratnam, iQIYI International's Country Manager for Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, during the partnership unveiling yesterday, 24 March.
"The collaborations with Primeworks Studio and Celcom have natural synergies that allow us to deliver tremendous value and leapfrog iQIYI towards these goals.”
The multi-year partnership with Primeworks Studio is anchored on iQIYI's exclusive first window broadcasting rights to the majority of TV3's locally-produced and highest-rated primetime dramas
Available on-demand, the catalogue covers both top library titles and fresh titles that will be streamed exclusively on iQIYI the same day it airs nationwide on TV3. All of these TV3 titles will be made available within a dedicated tab within the iQIYI app for local content, which is also accessible on web browsers here.
Fans can look forward to more than 1,000 hours of premium local content by the end of 2021.
With this collaboration, iQIYI's viewership of these TV3 titles is also further extended to users in Singapore and Brunei
Users in Singapore and Brunei will be able to tune in to upcoming Ramadan and Raya specials Sabarlah Duhai Hati and Cukup Derita Itu, as well as highly-anticipated titles such as the sequels to last year’s top two rated TV shows, 7 Hari Mencintaiku 2 and Budak Tebing.
The highly-anticipated sequel to '7 Hari Mencintaiku 2' will be available to fans in Singapore and Brunei.
Image via Drama Sangat Official (YouTube)In addition to announcing the Primeworks Studio partnership, iQIYI also previewed a multi-faceted collaboration with Celcom, which includes being the Official Telco Partner for iQIYI's flagship variety production Youth With You 3 (YWY3).
The hit title, one of China’s highly anticipated variety shows, has garnered a huge following in Malaysia. Viewers love the show’s high-quality production and innovative viewer features. But it's the stellar cast that takes the cake. Featuring renowned mentors such as BLACKPINK’s LISA, Li Ronghao, and Will Pan, YWY3 is a fan favourite.
This year sees new features introduced, allowing Malaysian audiences to vote for their favourite trainee participants, or to write letters to them via the iQIYI platform, creating a deeper and more meaningful celebrity-fan relationship.
Details of Celcom and iQIYI's other initiatives will be announced in the coming months.
iQiyi also premiered highlights from its exciting 2021 Korean and Chinese content lineup
Highlights include its first Korean original production My Roommate is a Gumiho, as well as its first Chinese-language SEA original The Ferryman: Legends of Nanyang.
Filmed at the Iskandar Malaysia Studios in Johor Bahru, Ferryman: Legends of Nanyang features a mixture of both a local and international cast, including Malaysian-born actor Lawrence Wong, Jeanette Aw, Qi Yuwu, Rynn Lim, Ribbon Ooi, Joey Leong, and more.
iQIYI was ranked as the nation’s most downloaded over-the-top (OTT) streaming app across both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, between August 2020 and February 2021
The timely partnerships are inked in a period when pandemic and post-pandemic shifts towards OTT and changing behaviours in content consumption are evident.
According to research house Nielsen, Malaysia has registered close to one million new OTT or streaming subscribers last year to 14.1 million users, while iQIYI has observed a total of 68 million hours on its platform in 2020 alone.
Another consumer shift is that viewers are more willing to embrace ads for free content, or to pay a lower fee with limited ads.
Check out iQIYI's 2020 year in review:
