Quickflix China acquisition off

Struggling Australian SVOD service Quickflix has called off its planned acquisition of an unnamed Chinese media firm.

The deal, first revealed to shareholders of the listed company earlier this month, was designed to aid recovery at Quickflix, which has found the Australian subscription on-demand market tough since rival services Netflix, Presto and Stan launched.

However, a statement released today confirmed Quickflix would not be proceeding with an agreement with the Shanghai-based content company.
This decision was based on “due diligence” and “advice in relation to Chinese regulations and restrictions”.

“Quickflix recognises distribution of content into China and of Chinese content to the rest of the world is a significant opportunity and it is continuing to develop a China strategy,” the statement added.

“Quickflix is also pursuing opportunities for licensing and operating its studio-accredited streaming platform as a branded or white-label service in other international markets.”

The SVOD company repositioned itself in June in the face of increasingly stiff competition that had seen subs down 13%, citing “pent-up demand” for Netflix as the key issue, though it added it believed a one million subs total estimated to subscriber its rival as “significantly overstated”.

A quarterly report showed revenues were down 15%, while its move to become an SVOD reseller suffered when a deal to redistribute Presto fell through.