CROWN Media and Entertainment, an Australian firm led by former executives from Murdoch Media and News Corp, has submitted a bid to acquire troubled streaming service iflix,Chinese internet giant Tencent is also understood to have been involved in discussions with iflix, two sources told BT.
A report by lowyat.net on Tuesday claimed that iflix has been sold to Tencent, citing that the app store displays the publisher of the iflix app as “Renfeng Media Tech”, which is also listed as the publisher of Tencent’s WeTV app. Both iflix and Tencent have not responded to BT’s queries on the matter.
Crown Media is headed by Prabhat Sethi, the former managing director of Murdoch Media, as well as Peter Tonagh, the former chief executive of News Corp Australia. BT understands that Crown Media is interested to turn around the regional Over-The-Top streaming business of iflix, which is currently saddled with debt. The Australian firm is also said to have been exploring the acquisition of some assets from Singtel’s failed streaming service, Hooq, to further boost iflix’s business.