Viacom sells Nick shows to China’s iQiyi

Chinese online entertainment company iQiyi has signed a deal with Viacom International Media Network for the streaming rights of a number of Nickelodeon shows in China.

Under the new expanded agreement, iQiyi gets exclusive streaming rights for Mandarin and English Nickelodeon programs in mainland China on iqiyi’s platforms for kids, which will the company says should ‘see an anticipated four-fold increase of content from their previous deal’.

The agreement is a continuation of iQiyi’s relationship with Nickelodeon, which began in 2012 and has seen the online platform acquire streaming rights to a number of properties including Shimmer and Shine and Blaze and the Monster Machines.  

The latest deal will see iQiyi stream the latest seasons of Shimmer and Shine, Blaze and the Monster Machines, SpongeBob SquarePants, Top Wing, Rusty Rivets and Rise of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Mark Whitehead, president and MD, Asia Pacific at Viacom International Media Networks said that China remained a strategic market for Viacom. “The extended content deal with iQIYI speaks to the success of our on-going collaboration with iQIYI who is an important content distribution partner for us in China, enabling us to meet the demand of Nickelodeon’s premium entertainment content for Chinese viewers.”

iQiyi is China’s biggest online entertainment provider. During the three months to December 31, 2017, its Monthly Active User (MAU) reached about 421m on mobile, while the Daily Active Users (DAU) reached 126 million; on PC platform iQIYI’s MAU and DAU reached about 424 million and 54 million respectively.