Advanced Television

Report: APAC content investment remains resilient

September 11, 2025

Media Partners Asia (MPA) has released its latest Asia Video Content Dynamics 2025 report, tracking content investment, consumption, and production across seven key Asian markets: India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

The report provides a comprehensive analysis of consumption and content investment across  Asia’s fast-evolving video ecosystem across TV, online video, and film.

Content Investment

  • Total video content investment across the seven markets reached US$16.1 billion in 2024, up 9 per cent year-on-year, driven by spend on Sports and Local Content. India led growth with $6.2 billion (+19 per cent). Korea remained the largest market with $7 billion (+7.1 per cent), though streaming spend was rationalised. Indonesia contracted 7 per cent to $855 million, while Malaysia and the Philippines each fell 3–4 per cent. Thailand and Vietnam also posted declines.
  • In 2025, content investment across the seven markets is projected to decline 2 per cent to $15.8 billion due to declines in TV content investment across FTA and pay-TV, driven by weakness in advertising-dependent TV sectors. Growth is being tempered by streaming platforms pulling back on costly originals and sector wide focus on profitability.  Streaming will emerge as the single last vertical for content investment in 2025 with a total spend of $5 billion, overtaking pay-TV, across the seven market aggregate.
  • By 2029, content investment is forecast inch up to $16.7 billion, with India nearly closing the gap with Korea. TV will decline from ~59 per cent of spend in 2025 to 51 per cent in 2029, while streaming grows from ~31 per cent to 38 per cent, and theatrical edges up from 10 per cent to 11 per cent.

Industry Trends

  • Broadcasters face structural ad declines, pushing into aggregation and content licensing.
  • Streamers are prioritising profitability over growth, scaling back originals while expanding ad-supported tiers.
  • Local producers are well-positioned, with transferable skills across film, TV, and streaming. Scale depends on marketing and distribution partnerships.
  • Artificial Intelligence is emerging as a significant future driver: from streamlining production workflows and subtitling to enabling data-driven commissioning, localised marketing, and dynamic ad monetisation.

Commenting on the report’s key findings, MPA Vice President Stephen Laslocky said: “Content investment across Asia Pacific remains resilient, even as platforms and broadcasters confront rising costs and softer advertising. Sports rights in India and Korea are powering much of the near-term growth, while selective bets on premium drama and local storytelling continue to drive engagement in India, Korea, Indonesia and Thailand. At the same time, viewership dynamics are shifting. TV still anchors mass audiences in markets like Thailand and Vietnam, but streaming now dominates younger demographics. The challenge for the industry is to balance growth and profitability: to invest smartly in the stories that resonate, adapt to the ad-supported future, and embrace innovations like AI to make content creation and distribution more efficient. The winners will be those able to scale while staying close to the consumer.”

TV Ratings & Performance

  • Traditional TV remains resilient in Thailand and Vietnam, where ratings for FTA broadcasters continue to anchor reach.
  • In India, TV retains mass-market impact, particularly in regional languages, though ad spend is shifting toward digital video.
  • Korea and the Philippines continue to see erosion in TV ratings as younger audiences migrate to streaming, while Indonesia’s TV remains stable with strong performance ratings wise from RCTI and SCTV.
  • TV advertising has been in free fall across all measured markets this year.

Streaming Dynamics

  • India generated 21.5 billion hours of premium VoD viewing in Q2 2025, led by JioHotstar (56 per cent share), with Amazon (Prime Video + MX Player) holding a combined 25 per cent share.
  • In East Asia, Korea and Indonesia led premium video consumption at 1.2 bil. hours each. The Philippines recorded 0.9 billion hours while Thailand delivered 0.5 bil. hours from 41 mil. MAUs. Malaysia registered 0.4 bil. hours of consumption.
  • Netflix maintained leadership in most markets, capturing between 50–80 per cent of viewing in Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Its share is lower in Thailand, where TrueID competes. Local champions play important roles in Indonesia and Thailand, with Vidio and TrueID competing closely.  Viu is well positioned across Southeast Asia with Korean dramas, variety formats, local shows and Chinese content.
  • Korean dramas and movies, together with Hollywood content, account for over half of premium VoD viewing in East Asia. Variety shows gained momentum in Korea, where reality and variety surpassed 25 per cent of streaming hours, and in India.
  • Sports remains a critical growth driver in India, with cricket continuing to anchor engagement.

Film & Theatrical Recovery

  • India’s box office climbed to $1.4 billion in 2024, led by South Indian films.
  • Korea’s theatrical revenues dropped 17 per cent to $808 million, though local films commanded 61 per cent of box office.
  • Indonesia grew modestly to $294 million, with local hits resonating.
  • Philippines and Vietnam showed robust rebounds, with local titles commanding 41 per cent and nearly 50 per cent of box office respectively.

Categories: Articles, Content, Markets, Research

Tags: , , , , ,