Contract expansion with Viki

9 March 2015

SyQic plc

("SyQic" or the "Group" or the "Company")

Contract expansion with Viki

SyQic (AIM: SYQ), the fast growing provider of live TV and on-demand video content across mobile and internet enabled consumer devices, announces it is expanding its contract with Viki to launch cool2vu in Europe, South America and Central America.

SyQic announced on February 3 2015 that it had signed a two year agreement with Viki to make its TV shows and movies available to SyQic's customers via its cool2vu platform (www.cool2vu.com). Since launch, SyQic has seen a significant increase in subscribers and advertising revenues across its home territories of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore and will now expand its original agreement with Viki to include Europe, South America and Central America. Territories included as part of the expansion are, amongst others, Scandinavia, Russia, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

This rapid roll-out to new territories comes at a time when there is a strong demand for Korean content worldwide. The total value of Korea's cultural exports has doubled since 2008 to more than $US5bn in 2012 according to Korea's Creative Content Agency. 

Software development undertaken by SyQic on the cool2vu platform will allow the Company to increase its addressable market by enabling access by users of Android and iOS internet enabled mobile, tablet devices and personal computers. 

Under the original agreement, content is provided to SyQic free of charge until SyQic includes it as part of a paid for subscription service when a revenue sharing arrangement will be introduced. This therefore enables SyQic to generate advertising revenues from Viki's content without a cost to SyQic.

Jamal Hassim, CEO of SyQic, commented: "We are delighted to be rolling out cool2vu, our Korean themed entertainment service, rapidly into new continents and certainly well ahead of our original strategic plans. With Korean dramas and pop music rapidly increasing in popularity around the world with the young demographic, the partnership with global TV site Viki means SyQic is positioned to scale globally and unlock further revenue opportunities in new markets without the need to first obtain content licenses in territory.

The cool2vu service has already started generating advertising revenues and this is a new revenue stream that we expect to grow as the service enters new markets and its user base continues to increase."

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About SyQic

SyQic is afast growing provider of live TV and on-demand video content across mobile and internet enabled consumer devices. Incorporated in Jersey and headquartered in the UK, it has a significant service footprint in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. 

The Group launched its new Korean content service called "cool2vu" in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in January 2015 streaming high demand Korean content utilising an advertising revenue model.

About Viki

Viki is a global TV streaming site with TV shows, movies and other premium content, translated into more than 200 languages by a community of fans. Launched in December 2010, Viki now has 35 million viewers every month watching and sharing TV shows, movies, music videos and other premium content from around the world which are translated into more than 160 languages.

With over 26 million mobile app installs and over 800 million words translated to date, Viki brings global prime-time entertainment to new audiences and unlocks new markets and revenue opportunities for content owners. Viki was acquired by Japanese internet services giant Rakuten for a reported $200m in September 2013. The company has offices in San Francisco, Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo.