SVOD Growth Slows in Southeast Asia

The Southeast Asian SVOD base grew by just 7,000 in the first half of this year, a significant slowdown following the 7 million net new additions in the second half of last year and 3.7 million in the first half of 2022, according to new Media Partners Asia (MPA) data.

MPA’s Southeast Asia Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report analyzed data from its AMPD subsidiary, tracking viewing trends in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

At the end of the first half of this year, there were 47.6 million SVOD subscribers in Southeast Asia. Gains in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines were offset by a whopping 1.2 million reduction in Indonesia.

MPA attributes the slowdown to several factors, including subscriber churn in Indonesia following the FIFA World Cup at the end of last year and the end of the Premier League season this May. MPA also points to a significant reduction in local marketing and content spend by players other than Netflix, Prime Video and Viu, and price increases at a number of services.

Netflix, Viu and Prime Video added 1.2 million customers, leveraging their slates of Korean drama, the leading content category in the region. Per MPA, 53 percent of premium VOD users in the region streamed Korean content in the period, which accounted for 40 percent of viewing. Fifty percent of audiences viewed local content in the first half, with Thai shows having the greatest regional impact. U.S. content took a 21 percent share of premium VOD viewership, followed by local (13 percent), Japanese anime (10 percent) and Chinese content (9 percent).

By platform, Netflix took a 44 percent share of premium VOD viewership, followed by Viu at 13 percent, TrueID at 8 percent, and WeTV, Vidio and Disney at 7 percent each.

Vivek Couto, MPA’s executive director, commented: “The region’s leading premium VOD platforms are in the midst of a shift towards quality customer growth, retention, and monetization. Netflix has reduced prices and introduced member sharing measures while Disney has raised prices in Indonesia and Thailand in an effort to build low- churn, high ARPU customer bases. We expect Vidio in Indonesia to pick up subscribers with the return of Liga 1 and the Premier League in 2H, along with impactful local slates from Netflix and Amazon, particularly in Thailand and Indonesia, attracting new subscribers, while Viu will continue to benefit from its Korean output. In the larger online video landscape, TikTok is increasingly a major driver of viewership growth on mobile and web platforms, responsible for over 70 percent of growth in streaming minutes over the past two years. TikTok captured 42 percent of video streaming minutes in the first half of 2023, a massive 20-point increase over first half 2021 and seven point increase from first half 2022. While overall engagement is growing, TikTok’s rise has reduced shares for YouTube and premium VOD year-on-year.”