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Investment in content for the theatrical film, TV and streaming markets of India and East Asia amounted to $15.5 billion in 2023, a new report shows. But spending slowed to a growth rate of just 4%, a significant slowdown compared with the investment peak in 2021-22, driven by COVID.
Media Partners Asia’s (MPA) 2024 Asia Video Content Dynamics, report which covers India, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, describes the slowdown as “a normalization of budgets and a rationalization of local content investment in streaming VOD.”
India was the strongest-growing market, with a robust 12% growth, driven primarily by sports content, while Indonesia followed with a 5% increase. Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand managed modest gains. Malaysia and Vietnam experienced contractions due to challenging advertising markets.
Korea and India continue to dominate the landscape together accounting for 80% of total content investment in 2023. among the countries covered.
“Korea, a mature market, is expected to see flat overall growth, with expansion in streaming and film offset by TV’s secular decline. In contrast, India, with its relatively low 52% TV household penetration, presents significant growth potential across all verticals through 2028,” MPA said, forecasting that India will overtake Korea in total content investment by 2026.
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Looking ahead, MPA forecasts a 2.7% compound average growth rate in total content investment across the seven markets, reaching $17.2 billion by 2028. This growth will be predominantly driven by India, with Indonesia and the Philippines also expected to show decent growth rates. Korea and Thailand are anticipated to experience limited growth, while Vietnam faces the most challenges due to weak TV advertising and rampant piracy.
Free and pay-TV currently account for 64% of the total investment, but that will drop to 50% in 2028, according to the group’s forecast. Streaming is similarly forecast to grow from 26% to 33% of the pie. Film is forecast as growing marginally to 11%.
“Korean content continues to lead the pack with world-class production values and compelling storytelling, though we’re seeing online original content costs inflate to as much as $7 million per episode. Its extraordinary appeal is evident, accounting for over 30% of content demand in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. The rise of streaming has significantly elevated storytelling and production quality, particularly in Thailand and Indonesia, where competition is intensifying. We’re seeing content from these countries, especially Thai titles, gaining traction across Asia,” said Stephen Laslocky, MPA VP.
“It’s become clear that many traditional TV drama producers are struggling to compete with higher-end streamed video content. In contrast, quality film producers have embraced the flexibility of streaming and adapted with greater ease. Over the past year, as some ad revenues have permanently shifted to digital and streaming behavior has become entrenched, we’ve observed TV production margins contracting across most markets. For online originals, streamers have become much more disciplined in their approach to budgeting and content strategy.”
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