Knowing what content sells is critical to the future of streaming success- and when it comes to the Asia-Pacific market, there are two content types that are selling exponentially well. That’s Hollywood fare, and Korean content. While this does exclude both India and the censor-heavy Chinese market, it’s still a key trend to note, and Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer with Blake & Wang P.A, is here to break it down for us.
70% of the Market
According to a recent report from regional consultancy firm Media Partners Asia, content from the US accounts for 30% of SVOD viewership in the Asia-Pacific area, and Korean content commands a massive 40% of the same market.
Of course, that’s not homogenous across all regions. Australia, for example, showed a massive reliance on US-made entertainment, with Korean-language content holding only 4% of the market. South Korea and Japan, the two most developed regional economies (and a combined $5.5B SVOD market), has nearly no impact from US content (13% and 16% respectively), with Japanese anime, Korean drama, and local-focused live programming dominating. While Australia does offer a compelling $2.2B SVOD market, they’re not where most streamers are looking for new growth.
Growing Southeast Asian Markets
Southeast Asia has seen a massive push in streamer growth of late, with Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand leading the charge. And in each of these key new markets, we see a very similar content consumption pattern- Korea and the US dominate. This has already led Netflix to focus on local language dubs for their Originals, while both they and Disney are managing to cultivate major cult followings for their various IPs across local fanbases. Interestingly, third-party studio partnerships are driving a lot of this demand, with only Disney+ supplying most content in-house for their general entertainment and family-focused properties.
As one of the most rapidly evolving SVOD markets in the world, it’s well worth paying attention to these evolving trends across the market, and this one couldn’t be clearer.
