This app offers the best Asian entertainment for free, and often it's subtitled within hours of a show being broadcast.

There's a fantastic mix of contemporary Asian-language entertainment as well as Viu Originals to choose from.

It, therefore, is no surprise to hear that pan-regional Viu is one of the leading over-the-top streaming services.

It's premium content - covering various genres - comes from top content providers throughout the East, which is subtitled and interfaced for local audiences. And Viu itself has commissioned programming too.

Among the content you can stream and download are dramas, movies, TV series, and anime from:

● Malaysia

● Korea

● Japan

● Indonesia

● South Africa

● China

Among the titles currently on offer are:

● The Bridge 2

● Train

● Unsung Cinderella

● Dr. Romantic 2

● Pretty Little Liars

● Kyojo

● Parasite

● Uzalo S6 and lots more besides

The app comes in Android and iOS format, but you can cast to several supported smart TVs and watch at the viu.com website. You may wish to stop by the website first before downloading to get an insight into what latest content is available.

Features

● The latest TV shows and series from across Asia

● New content available as soon as four hours after the broadcast with localized subtitles

● Unlimited video streaming

● Local language interface

More

This Hong Kong-developed app is a little bit of a puzzle. The Android version has only been reviewed a total of 16 times on Google Play, and the app is now on version 1.6.0.

As if that's not discouraging enough for the developers, the reviewers have not held back disparaging Viu and voting it to a well below-average score of 1.6 out of five. (The main grouses regarded device compatibility and ads. The usual type of stuff that's the bane of a developer's life.)

However, the complete opposite is true for the iOS version. Over at Apple's App Store, Viu gets a highly respectable 4.4 out of five off the back of 1,600 reviews. The most recent App Store reviewed complained about apparently innocuous scenes being cut from various movies and dramas.

It's challenging to draw conclusions. Maybe the app's demographic are mostly iPhone owners. Or maybe the Android app does suck big time. Maybe it's too soon to draw definitive conclusions at all, as it's unlikely a developer would allow such differing app performance between platforms.

Currently, the app is aimed at the following markets, with more in the pipeline:

● South Africa

● Bahrain

● Oman

● Jordan

● Kuwait

● Egypt

● Qatar

● Saudi Arabia

● UAE

● Hong Kong

● Singapore

● Thailand

● Malaysia

● Myanmar

● Indonesia

● Philippines

PROS

● It's free

● Excellent source of Asian language TV content

● Supports select smart TVs, mobile devices, and computers

CONS

● Upgrade required to access latest shows

● Content differs by region due to licensing rights

● Downloading content for offline viewing requires a subscription

How to use

Viu's Android app requires 28 MB of storage space and Android 6.0 or later.

The iOS version requires 121 MB of storage and iOS 10.0 or later.

The app only supports English, Thai, and Traditional and Simplified Chinese.