Content investment for film, TV and streaming markets in India and East Asia is set to reach $15.5 billion in 2023, a new report shows. But spending has slowed to just 4% growth, a significant slowdown from the peak investment in 2021-22, due to Covid.
The Asia Video Content Dynamics 2024 report by Media Partners Asia (MPA), which covers India, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, describes the slowdown as “normalization of budgets and rationalization of investment in local content in video on demand.”
India was the strongest growth market, posting a robust 12% growth, driven primarily by sports content, while Indonesia followed with a 5% increase. Korea, the Philippines and Thailand saw modest gains. Malaysia and Vietnam saw contraction due to challenging advertising markets.
Korea and India continue to dominate the scene together, accounting for 80% of total content investment in 2023. Of the countries covered,
“Korea, a mature market, is expected to see steady overall growth, with expansion in streaming and movies offset by the secular decline of TV. In contrast, India, with a 52% household TV penetration, offers significant growth potential across all verticals through 2028,” according to MPA, which expects India to overtake Korea in total content investment by 2026.
Looking ahead, MPA forecasts a CAGR of 2.7% in total content investment across the seven markets, reaching $17.2 billion by 2028. This growth will be driven primarily by India, with Indonesia and the Philippines also expected to show decent growth. Korea and Thailand are expected to see limited growth, while Vietnam faces the biggest challenges due to weak TV advertising and rampant piracy.
Free and paid TV services currently account for 64% of total investment, but this will fall to 50% in 2028, according to the group’s forecasts. Live streaming is also expected to grow from 26% to 33% of total investment. The film sector is expected to grow slightly to 11%.
“Korean content continues to lead the way with world-class production values and compelling storytelling, even as we see costs for original online content soar to as high as $7 million per episode,” said Stephen Lasluky, MPA’s vice president. “Its extraordinary appeal clearly accounts for more than 30% of content demand in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. The rise of streaming has dramatically increased the quality of storytelling and production, especially in Thailand and Indonesia, where competition is fierce. We are seeing content from these countries, particularly Thai titles, gaining traction across Asia.”
“It has become clear that many traditional TV drama producers are struggling to compete with high-quality video content being streamed online. In contrast, high-quality film producers have embraced the flexibility of online streaming and have adapted more easily. Over the past year, as some advertising revenues have shifted permanently to digital and online streaming behavior has become more entrenched, we have seen TV production margins shrink in most markets. For original online content, OTT producers have become more disciplined in their approach to budget and content strategy.”
