“Explosion of Screens” Takes Center Stage at APOS

An “explosion of screens,” led by increased mobile connectivity, will drive gains in AsiaPac video revenues over the next five years, Vivek Couto, executive director of Media Partners Asia (MPA), said in his opening remarks at APOS in Bali this morning.

This is the tenth edition of MPA’s annual APOS Summit in Indonesia. Total video industry revenues in the region will rise by 5 percent every year for the next five years, Couto said, to reach $154 billion. Online services will account for more than a third of that in five years time versus 18 percent today. Excluding China, growth is a bit slower, at 4 percent a year. Television on its own is flat, growing at about 1 percent a year.

“China remains at the forefront in terms of scale and monetization” in online video, Couto noted. “But monetization of video across millions of mobile screens is starting to scale in other markets. We have the beginnings of a digital ecosystem.”

Obstacles to growth in the region include “piracy and content theft and unpredictable regulations.”

Couto went on to note that China and India will contribute more than 80 percent of growth over the next five years. India is the fastest growing video market in the region.

A number of markets in the region have growing populations under the age of 25—audiences that are anchored to the digital ecosystem—as well as emerging middle classes with higher purchasing power.

“There is an explosion of screens everywhere, driven by mobile broadband connectivity, which has helped drive digital,” Couto continued.

He went on to note that consumer spend is also shifting online and is set to reach 30 percent of overall video spend in 2024 versus 19 percent today. “In China, the shift is more pronounced, with a 40 percent share in five years time. India is also emerging rapidly to reach a 10 percent share. In Australia, the shift is probably the most pronounced in the region—a share of 55 percent over the next five years. In Japan, the shift is slow and steady to 21 percent. In Indonesia, the game is yet to be played and won; consumer spend remains relatively low. Online will grab a bigger share in the future.”

Advertising is “critical to revenue prospects,” Couto said, accounting for 56 percent of video revenues in 2024, particularly online video advertising.

Video content investment will see a moderate pace of growth, “as budgets rationalize across free and pay TV, especially on third-party content and to some extent sports rights. Online video content spend, meanwhile, will climb 10 percent every year over the next five years to reach $33 billion, driven by growth across the region, as well as cost inflation of Asian entertainment, sports rights and Hollywood content. China is the clear leader—$27 billion spent on online video content over the next five years, followed by Japan and India.”