Streaming in Southeast Asia grows 19%, Indonesian content competes with K-Dramas
The premium streaming market in Southeast Asia has seen significant momentum in 2025, driven by a resurgence in account growth, increased adoption of connected TV and a milestone year for locally produced programming, new data from Media Partners Asia and its measurement platform AMPD shows.
The number of paid streaming accounts across the region increased 19% year-on-year to exceed 61 million in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore by 2025. Indonesia dominated the number of new accounts and captured the majority of total viewing time, while Thailand and the Philippines contributed consistent incremental expansion. In Malaysia and Singapore, where markets are saturated, operators focused on driving user activity and generating revenue rather than adding subscribers.
Southeast Asian viewers consumed 4.2 billion hours of premium streaming content in the final quarter of 2025, an increase of 8% from the previous quarter. Netflix’s regional ratings rose 14%, while iQIYI rose 10%, although Indonesian service Vidio posted the strongest increase at 24%.
Indonesia’s streaming subscriber base grew to 26.9 million accounts, with Netflix, Vidio, Viu and iQIYI all contributing to the gains. The market reached a historic milestone in the fourth quarter of 2025 when Indonesian productions matched Korean programming’s audience share at 30% each, while both content types reached nearly identical portions of the user base at 47-48%. Several Indonesian originals were among the best-performing titles of the quarter, led mainly by Vidio’s content offering, demonstrating how homegrown productions are becoming commercially viable drivers for acquiring and retaining subscribers.
“Korean content continued to anchor reach in Southeast Asia in 2025, but local originals now play a much more central role in driving both acquisition and engagement,” said Dhivya T, principal analyst and head of insights at MPA and AMPD. “Indonesia stood out this year, with local titles competing directly with Korean dramas at the top of the premium VOD rankings. This is a meaningful shift that reflects improving content quality, stronger distribution and increasing audience trust in local stories. Thai content also showed strong cross-border travelability, while Chinese dramas remained a key driver of engagement on freemium and hybrid platforms across multiple markets.”
Netflix maintained its position as the dominant streaming service in the region across all key metrics, including number of subscribers, monthly active users and total viewing time. The platform’s strength came from its combination of global hit franchises, major Korean series and locally acquired content from Indonesia and Thailand. Viu claimed the second spot regionally in subscribers, MAUs and user engagement for 2025, benefiting from continued interest in Korean dramas in addition to targeted local productions.
Vidio led among Indonesian local platforms in terms of both subscribers and monthly active users, while it ranked second after Netflix in terms of viewing time and revenue generation. The service recorded the second-highest streaming hours in the region in the fourth quarter, behind only Netflix, driven by a growing library of Indonesian originals and sports programming. iQIYI regained its subscriber and viewership momentum in the second half of 2025, especially in Indonesia and Thailand, thanks to full-length Chinese dramas, live-action productions, Chinese short dramas and Thai series.
Thai productions achieved the strongest international reach within Southeast Asia, attracting 11.1 million viewers from outside Thailand’s borders. This achievement largely stemmed from Netflix-licensed and Netflix-produced horror films and series.
AMPD’s expansion of connected TV tracking beginning in the second quarter of 2025 revealed a substantial shift in the way Southeast Asian audiences consume streaming content. While mobile devices still remain the dominant viewing platform, connected TVs now account for an increasing share of total viewing hours, longer individual viewing sessions and greater interaction with episodic series, feature films, sports broadcasts and content viewed by multiple household members. The growth in connected TV usage has been most dramatic in Indonesia and the Philippines, highlighting how living room viewing on big screens will play a central role in the evolution of the streaming category.
Industry concentration increased as three to four platforms accounted for roughly 70% of subscriptions and viewing activity across all markets, indicating the industry is consolidating around a small group of leading services.
