A report published by Media Partners Asia entitled ‘US Content in the Asia Pacific’ leverages MPA subsidiary AMPD Research’s nationally representative passive panel solutions of 40,000 online video users to measure actual premium video content viewership in APAC.
The report highlights the role of US-originating content in APAC’s subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) economy. Capturing 30% of SVOD viewership during the January 2022 – March 2023 period, US content is established as the second largest SVOD viewership driver after South Korean productions. Australia, a $2.2 billion SVOD market, exhibits the highest reliance on US entertainment with 72% of measured SVOD viewership, followed by Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines where US content accounts for 40-50% of viewership on average with Indonesia close behind at 35%. In two of Asia’s major SVOD markets – Japan and Korea, worth an aggregate of $5.5 billion – US content has limited impact in generating streaming subscriptions. SVOD growth in the markets is anchored to domestic productions, particularly Korean dramas and variety and Japanese anime and live-action.
The report emphasizes the subscriber appeal of US content and growing fandoms in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, despite competition from emergent local content demand, and the popularity of K-dramas.
“US originals on Netflix are increasingly launched with Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, and Tagalog dubs, expanding their reach and accessibility in Asia. Strong fandoms have developed around many of Netflix’s top originals, building on multi-season momentum like Stranger Things season four, You season four, and Bridgerton season two, while Disney taps into Marvel, Star Wars and family franchise fan bases. Sci-fi and fantasy emerged as the most popular US content genre in Asia over the past year, while comedy rules in Australia. It’s notable that unscripted US content has had little impact in APAC ex-Australia, especially in Japan and Korea where audiences are well-served by distinct local variety and reality formats,” Dhivya T, head of content insights, MPA said.
The report also found that third-party studios drive US demand across platforms, with the exception of Disney+ where most content supplied is owned by Disney’s various GE, franchise and family properties. Licensed titles from Warner Bros. Discovery (Friends); NBCU (Brooklyn Nine-Nine); Sony (Venom, Spider-Man); Paramount (SpongeBob, Big Bang Theory) contributed material viewership on Netflix. Warner Bros. Discovery titles, particularly HBO dramas (House of the Dragon, The Last of Us), capture significant viewership on Binge (Australia), while Paramount drives much of TVING’s (Korea) limited US content demand.
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