Telekom Malaysia’s Unifi TV has started producing its own original content, including TV series and movies, to diversity its content portfolio and compete against other streaming services.

Branded as Unifi TV Originals, the new content kicks off later this week with “Nak Dengar Cerita Hantu?”, an eight-episode series of Malaysian urban legends and folklore tales. Viewers can watch the show live or via catch-up VOD later.

Unifi TV is partnering with local production houses Golden Adventure Creative, NS Star and Nuansa to produce the shows.

Anand Vijayan, TM’s chief commercial officer and executive VP of Unifi, said other series covering the action, horror and thriller genres will be released over the next 12 months.

“These original productions allow us to compete with other content platforms and providers, offering diverse content to our viewers,” Anand said, adding that Unifi TV also aims to “create opportunities to the local entertainment industry to showcase their work.”

Streaming services have been producing their own content for some time, mainly as a competitive differentiator to attract viewers with exclusive content that's not available elsewhere. However, it's a risky strategy – big-name streamers like Netflix, Disney Plus and others have been losing money because content production is expensive, and they're not signing on enough subscribers to cover the cost.

Unifi TV is in a somewhat different position, as it's part of a vertical model within TM's Unifi fixed-mobile broadband business. TM's 2Q 2023 results reported a modest 0.5% increase in Unifi revenues. However, TM overall reported a net profit of US$122.6 million for the quarter, its most profitable quarter since 4Q 2011.