What is Annoyingly Changing on Viki

[frustratedwriter]

I have recently noticed not many Japanese, or Taiwanese dramas on here. whats with that? what about some new dramas of Chinese?

[worthyromance]

Thanks, Adrian, for pointing out the Kocowa category in Viki. I compared it with the Kocowa site and so far, they only offer 5 shows that are not currently on Viki, for those of us with Viki Pass Plus. It would cost another $70 annual fee to subscribe to Kocowa, and I personally don’t feel that five more shows are worth that to me. I also noted that they have English and Portuguese subtitles only. I didn’t notice any Jdramas on there. Thus I feel that Viki is by far the best choice.

Most of us also have Netflix. My hubby loves documentaries so he subscribes there. I adore Asian romances, and I feel Viki far surpasses NF in that category I watched all the NF Asian dramas, before I came to Viki over a year ago. Now I go on NF once every two months and binge their new Asian shows in less than a week. NF would never satisfy my voracious appetite for Asian romances. I tried the other countries’ dramas and found one Malaysian, a handful of Bollywood, few Thai and some Philippine shows which I liked.

It would be ethically wrong for Viki to pirate. Those pirate sites get lawsuits, and users become vulnerable to having your computer hacked. Who needs that?

I will add ‘If I can Love You So’ on my to-watch list. I liked Crash Landing on You. Hot and Sweet was cute and easy to watch as it’s very short.

Japanese dramas arrive on Viki a few at a time, as well as Chinese. I don’t like that Chinese drama kisses are now censored. That bugs me more than having to deal with tech bugs

[mirjam_465]

I read somewhere else on the Discussions that it’s hard these days to get licenses for Japanese shows.

[frustratedwriter]

we/I pay this x amount of money monthly or yearly, why in the world can’t they get something going. Oh I realize the licensing and all, its frustrating, you can watch Healer just so many times, and the other shows we all love watching. to be sure there’s something that can be done instead of Netflix( and the new ones are great) why do we have to go there or Hulu or those other places we aren’t supposed to mention. you tube has got “my roommate is a detective,” now hows that? Like I said theres gotta be something they can do to appease people like me or us! And don’t get me wrong, I do like Viki… I sure don’t Viki to pirate-like worthy romance stated… there are so many dramas here, and been watching them as well. so come on how about it? I am going to watch more this next few weeks. we do need more without pirating!

[worthyromance]

‘My Roommate is a Detective’ is on Viki. I watched Healer only once, and I have over 70 Viki shows on my to-watch list, in addition to the hundreds I have already watched. Check out my profile for my list of collections, and perhaps you will find some new shows to watch: https://www.viki.com/users/worthyromance/collections

Regarding the constant buffering, I’m sure this is NOT due to Viki but your WiFi service or internet provider. Do you have fiber optic internet? Our son in the big city, whose fiancee watches Viki, says the shows do not buffer. I have WiFi that comes over the cell tower, and my Viki shows only buffer when our daughter is watching YouTube downstairs on Smart TV, plus my hubby is on computer using all four monitors doing graphs.

[adrianmorales]

I read that too, but why? Also, isn’t VIKI technically a Japanese company? Why are they having such a tough time getting shows from their own country?

[mirjam_465]

Yes, or at least, their mother company is Japanese. It shouldn’t be that hard …

[irmar]

I read somewhere else on the Discussions that it’s hard these days to get licenses for Japanese shows.

Yes, it was here: Dudie’s post:

So few J-drama on viki

Would love to see more Jdrama on Viki. But I heard the license process for Japanese content is complicated. Not for Viki alone but in general Japan likes to keep things more for themselves so getting a license is hard and most likely when they are willing to give a license they ask a lot of money and come with a set of rules which might not work out. As for limited Japanese subs, I have a channel where eventually the Japanese subs where locked because the content owner did request it.

It was also discussed on this thread, that also includes a list of great j-dramas

and @mas4 wrote, on this thread:

Need more JAPANESE licensed dramas and movies

8 months ago, I asked for " 5→9 From Five to Nine" and here is the answer I got:

Currently, we aren’t involved in any content licensing for Japanese shows.
However, we’re always trying to diversity our content!
If we are able to secure content licensing for Japanese shows in the future, we will let you know.

[frustratedwriter]

Yes worthyromance that one is on viki, I finished watching it here on Viki, all I was saying, got on youtube and accidentally came across it. this is a cute drama, I did like it and plan to watch it again here on Viki. that was just an example of what we all are talking about. so how did youtube get it so quickly?

nice selection! worthyyromance, I hjave seen most of them the stranger in my house, I am watching again, didn’t know that guy played on is it Lockdown? so may watch that again too. thanks for the info anyway

[command_234]

I haven’t been using viki for all that long in the grand scheme of things. It has already become obvious to me that viki is facing increased competition from Netflix.

As a user from the United Kingdom. The amount of times I have seen the ‘sorry this content is not licensed in your region’ message is quite ridiculous. I often get presented with this message when browsing through topics on here looking for things to watch. So I click the links in the various topics and get presented with the above message. Which of course results in the utterance of a certain type of language which I cannot repeat on this forum, or I would be in contravention of the forum’s rules.

The one good thing about Netflix from the point of view of a lot of jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, is that the rights they obtain from rights holders often cover the majority of the jurisdictions they operate, including the United Kingdom

I think the problem is Netflix is just a bigger fish, so to speak. It has the resources to pay for content rights that cover more jurisdictions in one go than Viki does. This makes Netflix a very attractive option for rights holders as they can push their content out to most jurisdictions in one go and charge Netflix very handsomely for the privilege.

[irmar]

The one good thing about Netflix from the point of view of a lot of jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, is that the rights they obtain from rights holders often cover the majority of the jurisdictions they operate

Not true, unfortunately. I live in Greece and there’s lots and lots of content that I cannot watch. My daughter lives in the UK and she often tells me about various shows, and people here on Viki Discussions also mention this and that Korean drama, but then I go to NF and it’s nowhere to be seen, because obviously it’s not licensed in my region.
Of course I don’t sit and cry, I just watch on “other” sites.

[command_234]

That’s surprising, I wouldn’t of thought Greece would be one of the jurisdictions that misses out on content, at least not any more than the UK does anyway.

This makes Netflix a very attractive option for rights holders as they can push their content out to most jurisdictions

In recent years Netflix has tried to make sure the deals that it gets cover as many jurisdictions as possible. Unfortunately, there will always be some that miss out but I wouldn’t have thought Greece would be one of them. The deal that is mentioned earlier on in this topic covers 190 countries. I believe

[irmar]

The deal that is mentioned earlier on in this topic covers I believe covers 190 countries.

That’s all the more upsetting.

[mirjam_465]

Now I have to wonder … Are there also shows that can only be watched in Greece?

[irmar]

Are there also shows that can only be watched in Greece?

The current population of Greece is 10,426,393 as of Friday, June 5, 2020, based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data.
Greece 2020 population is estimated at 10,423,054 people at mid year according to UN data. Greece population is equivalent to 0.13% of the total world population.

Does this answer your question? You can safely say that the only shows available only in Greece would be unpopular Greek shows (the popular ones are also available to American Greeks)

[sonmachinima]

They should give the licence to whole EU; if they (Netflix) don’t want to add Greek subtitles it would still be possible to watch it with English subtitles (I think most shows there have English subtitles + language x).

Some years ago I was talking with a British friend about some shows on Netflix that I should watch bc they were so good and then, when I checked it I couldn’t because they were only available for UK… (although our countries have a quite close population number).

I’m curious, do you get the European shows on Netflix in Greece? e.g. the shows from Scandinavia, France…?

(In the past arte blocked people from outside France and Germany but now they opened it to more EUropean countries and Netflix often buys these shows now so they may be available for more countries.)

[irmar]

do you get the European shows on Netflix in Greece?

Now I’m too lazy to go and look specifically the countries you mentioned, but there are shows from many many countries. Just not all of them. For instance I wanted to watch the Great British Bake Off and I was very disappointed that it wasn’t available. Fortunately I was able to find it elsewhere, but not all of them can be found.

About Greek subtitles. Don’t mention it because it makes me furious. I did their test, I was chosen, contacted, I signed a non-disclosure agreement, I sent the electronic signature they asked for, waited for the contract (it was supposed to be 1000 dollars per hour of video for synchronizing and subbing) and then… nothing! That was two years ago, at the time they wanted to push lots and lots of content in Greece. Nobody replied to my e-mails ever since. Poof! Disappeared into thin air.
This has cooled my liking for the platform generally, so I rarely visit it, and never for Asian content. I want a place where I can chat with others.

[mirjam_465]

That’s horrible! I’m sorry they treated you that way.

[sonmachinima]

I’m sorry to hear that but I’m glad you’ve found some other platforms where you can watch at least some of the shows you want to watch.

I guess I’d also not use Netflix anymore under such circumstances.

[connie_schiller]

I love the Korean dramas and movies. I am so very tired of seeing American trashy blood and guts, cussing, porn type shows!!! If i wanted that I would subscribe the porn networks! I want these wonderful Korean shows where they still honor a code of ethics! If I loose these shows, I guess I will need to stop watching TV or going to the movies! The last GOOD American movie I saw was “News of the World”!!!