It was launched in 2007 as GyaO Next and is a large streaming platforms in Japan, with 4.3 million registered subscribers as of May 2024[ref].

[1] In June 2006, Usen began a project to investigate the possibility of watching GyaO, an advertising-supported video on demand (AVOD) service for PCs owned by the company, on television.

[11] U-Next was available by July 2010 on select models of Sony's Bravia, Sharp's Aquos, Toshiba's Regza, Hitachi's Wooo, Panasonic's Viera, and LG's Smart TV.

[17] In February 2017, U-Next announced that it would conduct a tender offer for shares of Usen and integrate its operations.

[18][19] In July 2020, U-Next acquired the anime-focused video streaming service Anime Hōdai through absorption-type split from SoftBank for 2.5 billion yen.

[25] On February 17, 2023, U-Next announced its merger with Premium Platform Japan, which operates the subscription video streaming service Paravi with 0.85 million subscribers and is owned by TBS Television and TV Tokyo.

[26] On March 31, the merger was completed, and the following day, TBS Holdings and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, acquired U-Next's shares.

[26] On March 3, Yasuharu Uno, the President of Usen-Next Holdings, expressed his desire to increase U-Next's subscribers to 10 million and stated that he wants to "surpass Netflix."

[27] On June 29, U-Next announced that it had conducted a third-party allotment of shares to TBS Holdings, raising approximately 24.3 billion yen in funding.

As a result, approximately 10,000 drama series and variety programs owned by Paravi, including those from TBS and TV Tokyo, became available for viewing on U-Next.

[29][30][26] As a result, with the combined figures, the total revenue exceeded 800 billion yen, there were 3.7 million paid subscribers, and a library of 350,000 titles.

[31][32] Starting from April 2023, U-Next has signed a multi-year domestic distribution partnership agreement with Ultimate Fighting Championship.

[33] On June 21, 2023, U-Next announced a fundamental partnership agreement with Spanish La Liga until the 2027-28 season.

Starting from the 2023-24 season, U-Next is exclusively livestream all matches of La Liga, as well as the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España, within Japan.

[34][35] On July 23, 2024, U-Next announced a fundamental partnership agreement with the English Premier League until the 2030-31 season.

Starting from the 2024-25 season, U-Next is exclusively livestream all matches of the league, as well as the FA Cup, within Japan.

On August 9, they launched the U-Next Soccer Pack, which costs an additional ¥2,600 per month and allows viewers to watch all Premier League and La Liga matches.

Manga and magazines from publishers such as Shogakukan, Kodansha, Shueisha, Kadokawa, Shufu no Tomo, Takarajimasha, and Shinchosha are available for streaming.

[36] From June 30, 2023, U-Next began live streaming all Yokohama DeNA BayStars home games in the Central League, the interleague play, and the Japan Series.

[41] From August 2024, subscribers can watch all matches of the Premier League and La Liga with an additional fee through the U-Next Soccer Pack.

On December 25, 2017, PPJ announced that the service, which would start in April of the following year, would be called Paravi, a coined word combining "Para," meaning "close" in Greek, and "Vision.

[43] On April 1, Paravi was launched, offering approximately 8,000 contents, including programs from TBS Television and TV Tokyo, at a monthly fee of 999 yen.

[50] On March 12, 2020, Paravi started offering free streaming of dramas and anime as a response to school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.