Ampere: Netflix and Amazon going local but facing more competition

Streaming providers Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are investing more in local content in international markets with an increasing focus on Asian markets such as Japan and India, where they are also facing competition from local players, according to Ampere Analysis.

The research outfit says that the 15 markets that spend the most on original TV content also represent 88% of the world’s SVOD revenue.

Ampere’s Consumer media and entertainment tracker found that China, the US and India had the highest proportion of respondents regularly watching local content, with over 70% of internet users watching local content very often in all three markets.

Local preferences tend to favour movies in markets including India and Italy, while in the UK, internet respondents watch local TV series 18% more than local movies.

The proportion of Netflix titles that are locally produced varies across markets, with 68% of Netflix’s top titles in Japan being locally produced, making it one of the most localised markets globally for the streamer.

In Europe, Spain is the most localised Netflix market, and 25% of the catalogue is now locally-originated. Netflix has been increasing its investment in Spanish content, helping it boost appeal to its growing Latin American audience. 43% of Spain’s top titles on Netflix throughout March were Spanish, and 28% of the most-viewed titles in Mexico were Spanish.
Although US SVOD platforms have the largest proportion of local titles, with over 50% of content, countries in the Asia Pacific region follow closely. China, Japan and India also have relatively high coverage of local content, at over 40% of catalogues, according to Ampere.

Henry Beckwith, Analyst at Ampere Analysis said: “While 90% of original content spend originates from these markets, so too does 88% of global SVOD revenues. Viewers like consuming content that is culturally relatable and they’re willing to pay for it.”

Tingting Li, Analyst at Ampere Analysis said: “Although both Netflix and Amazon Prime are ramping up local content in international markets, it still represents the minority of their catalogues. In the majority of their markets, less than 10% of catalogues are locally-originated, and in some, government regulations, quotas and the impact of foreign OTT platforms are driving the trend to localization. Looking ahead at in-production titles for Netflix for example, over 50% of all new movies and series will be produced outside the US.”

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