Streaming Soars in Key AsiaPac Markets

Weekly consumption of online video rose by 60 percent in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore amid COVID-19-related stay-at-home measures this month, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA).

Total online video streaming weekly consumption reached 58 billion minutes on mobile by April 11, 2020, versus 36.4 billion on January 20, 2020, according to MPA’s Southeast Asia Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics: A Definitive Study.

“The penetration of streaming video has increased dramatically during this pandemic as millions have been forced to operate from home,” said Vivek Couto, executive director of MPA. “The focus now is on how successfully SVOD platforms will be able to retain newly acquired customers in 2H 2020 and to what extent AVOD platforms can capitalize on the expanded reach.”

The four markets surveyed had 7 million paying online video/OTT customers at the end of March 2020, MPA says, accounting for $350 million in annual consumer spend.

“Netflix is a clear leader in most markets, followed by Viu with its freemium service while other players such as HBO, iQiyi and Tencent are well placed to grow in the future along with new entrants such as Disney+,” Couto added. “Key local players should be encouraged by increasing consumption and in certain cases, monetization, in the surveyed markets as they look to invest in scaling their offerings and managing the transition from broadcast to digital video. The onus is now on more robust aggregator offerings from traditional pay-TV platforms and new mobile and virtual operators. As consumer spend between online video and pay TV recalibrates, the delivery and distribution of live and on-demand streaming video will be critical in Southeast Asia. Today, consumer spending on online video is less than 25 percent in aggregate of what customers spend on linear pay-TV services in the four markets.”

Netflix is seeing heavy consumption of Korean content and anime as well as U.S. and European originals, the study found, with average weekly minutes viewed up 115 percent in the surveyed markets. Viu is also seeing Korean content help drive viewing as its usage soared by 274 percent. iQiyi, new to Southeast Asia, is growing steadily in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Local upstarts showing gains include Vidio in Indonesia, iWant in the Philippines, meWatch in Singapore and LineTV in Thailand.