Content investment in Asia is slowing to single-digit growth, the report said

Content investment for India and East Asia’s theatrical film, TV and streaming markets will reach $15.5 billion by 2023, a new report shows. But spending slowed to a growth rate of just 4%, a significant slowdown compared to the 2021-2022 investment peak, due to COVID.

The Media Partners Asia (MPA) Asia Video Content Dynamics 2024 report, which covers India, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, describes the slowdown as “a normalization of budgets and a rationalization of investments in local content in streaming VOD.”

India was the fastest growing market, with robust growth of 12%, mainly driven by sports content, while Indonesia followed with a 5% increase. Korea, the Philippines and Thailand posted modest gains. Malaysia and Vietnam experienced declines due to challenging advertising markets.

Korea and India continue to dominate the landscape, accounting for 80% of total content investments in 2023. Among the countries surveyed.

“Korea, a mature market, is expected to show flat overall growth, with the expansion of streaming and film offset by the long-term decline of TV. In contrast, India, with its relatively low 52% TV household penetration, offers significant growth potential across all verticals through 2028,” said MPA, which predicts India will overtake Korea in total content investment by 2026.

Looking ahead, MPA forecasts a compound average growth rate of 2.7% of total content investments across the seven markets, reaching $17.2 billion by 2028. This growth will be mainly driven by India, with Indonesia and the Philippines also expected to see significant will show growth figures. Korea and Thailand are expected to see 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 total investment, but the group forecasts that this will drop to 50% by 2028. Streaming is also predicted to grow from 26% to 33% of the pie. Film production is forecast to grow marginally to 11%.

“Korean content continues to lead the way with world-class production values ​​and compelling storytelling, although we see costs for original online content rising to as much as $7 million per episode. Its extraordinary appeal is clear: it accounts for more than 30% of content demand in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. The rise of streaming has significantly improved storytelling and production quality, especially in Thailand and Indonesia, where competition is becoming increasingly fierce. We see content from these countries, especially Thai titles, gaining popularity in Asia,” said Stephen Laslocky, MPA VP.

“It has become clear that many traditional TV drama producers are struggling to compete with higher end streamed video content. Quality film producers, on the other hand, have embraced the flexibility of streaming and adapted with greater ease. Over the past year, as some advertising revenues have shifted permanently to digital and streaming behavior has become entrenched, we’ve seen TV production margins shrink in most markets. For online originals, streamers have become much more disciplined in their approach to budgeting and content strategy.”