Disney+ Leads Gains in Japanese SVOD Market

The number of SVOD subscribers in Japan grew to 49.4 million in Q3, with Prime Video still the leading player in the market, followed by Netflix and then Disney+ ascending to third place, per new data from Media Partners Asia (MPA).

Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics reports that Disney+ ended Q3 with 3.6 million subscribers, behind Prime Video’s 16.5 million and Netflix’s 7 million and displacing Hulu Japan as the third-largest platform in the market. Disney+’s gains were driven by its kids’, Korean and U.S. franchise brands. Other key local SVOD platforms include U-Next and Abema TV. The local broadcast TV consortium TVer leads local AVOD.

Japanese anime continues to dominante premium online consumption, taking a 44 percent share in the quarter, followed by Japanese live action at 18 percent. Korean series scored a 14 percent share, ahead of U.S. series at 10 percent and U.S. movies at 7 percent.

Vivek Couto, executive director of MPA, noted: “Ex-Disney+, SVOD growth in Japan was relatively flat over Q2 and Q3. Amazon Prime Video continues to lead the category, followed by Netflix, both leveraging large, non-exclusive anime libraries to drive consumption. Local TV consortium and AVOD platform TVer continues to grow its share of premium video consumption, meeting demand for TV live streams and catch-up of popular variety and drama programming. Licensed TV content also drives subscriber acquisition on Hulu Japan and U-Next. Notably, Korean dramas play an outsize role in subscriber acquisition for Netflix and Disney+, providing competitive differentiation amidst largely non-exclusive anime libraries. Disney+ has also started to build an exclusive anime library, underscoring strategies towards content differentiation in a maturing SVOD environment.”