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Streaming has become a global phenomenon in the last few years, as people from every part of the planet have started watching TV shows and series whenever it suits them. The Asian market has been slower to take off than other places, but recent signs suggest that this is now on the way to becoming a huge industry.
Streaming in SE Asia has been in the news lately because Media Partners Asia has released a report that shows a 6% uplift in viewer figures in the third quarter of 2022. They attribute this partly to Amazon Prime Video’s marketing activity, as well as to the excellent content being released by rivals like Netflix and Disney+.
The number of Netflix viewing hours rose in all of the countries covered in the report, which are Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. This service made up more than 40% of the hours viewed on premium streaming services in the region. Viu is far behind in second place with 13% and WeTv from Tencent got 10% of the market share. Overall, two and a half million new subscribers have joined the streaming revolution here, making a total of over 43 million paying customers.
The Asian streaming market is still far behind the likes of Europe and North America. This 2022 streaming wrap up confirms the size and importance of the global streaming market, with more than 25 million views for the big-budget production of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power by Amazon Prime. This year has also seen Netflix spend $200 million on their most expensive movie so far and Stranger Things smashed viewing records when the fourth series came out in 2022.
Sport is often a big driver in the switch to streaming, and this has proven to be the case in Indonesia, where the Video service has been focusing on the national soccer league as well the English Premier League and the Spanish La Liga tournament. Vidio was the fastest-growing name in the sector in this quarter, as it rocketed up to four million subscribers, which makes it the fifth-most popular platform overall.
The localization aspect is also crucial, as global brands like Netflix and Amazon Prime need to find ways to make their content as attractive in Asia as possible. In this respect, the Amazon service has pushed ahead with its local content strategy that helped it gain about 400,000 new subscribers in this quarter.
Interestingly, viewers here prefer Korean content, particularly drama series, which is ahead of American and then Chinese series and movies. An example comes from Netflix’s Extraordinary Attorney Woo, a Korean series that has been popular across the region.
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It’s clear that the streaming market is heating up here, with the recent arrival of the Disney+ service ramping up the competition levels. This means that all of the big names are now present and ready to battle it out for SE Asian viewers. Each of the major platforms has a plan in place to attract more customers thanks to aggressive marketing, strong content, and a localized approach, so we can expect to see the market grow even more quickly in the future thanks to this investment strategy.
