MPA: local content dominates Asian streamer engagement

Asian audiences increasingly favour homegrown content in streaming, with Asian titles delivering 80% of premium VOD engagement and customer acquisition, according to research from Media Partners Asia (MPA).

Source: MPA

MPA’s The Rise of Asian Content report tapped data from the MPA ampd platform, with passive panels of over 40,000 uysers, to tease out viewing preferences across nine Asian markets – Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand – last year.

Korean content in particular continues to have a huge influence on Asian viewers. Korean content provides 40% of engagement and 30% of customer acquisition, according to the report.

The report said that Korea is also the largest destination for investment in content, with an estimated US$1.3 billion being invested by major international streamers such as Netflix, Viu, Disney and Amazon Prime Video.

While Korean content spans multiple genres, Japan’s contribution is highly focused on anime, which accounts for 60-70% of Japanese content engagement and acquisition.

“Content originating from Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia and Thailand drives 70-75% of premium VOD engagement, acquisition and hits in Asia. While the impact and travelability of K-dramas and anime is well-established, Chinese, Thai and Indonesian content are also emerging as important categories,” said MPA Lead Analyst Dhivya T.

“Modern Chinese dramas are increasingly taking on K-drama-like storylines and themes, appealing to wider audiences through platforms like Netflix and Viu, relative to traditional Chinese costume fantasy dramas, which remain popular in Thailand, Taiwan. In Indonesia and Thailand, key studios (Screenplay, MD Entertainment, The One Enterprise, GDH 559) are growing into producers of streaming hits, with Thai drama, romance, comedy, and Indonesian horror emerging as the genres with the highest regional travelability and appeal.”