Rahul Sachitanand
Sep 29, 2020

Aggressive mobile pricing, content help Netflix dominate key SEA markets

Netflix remains the largest player across four markets with over 3.3 million subscribers, with Viu in second place with an estimated 2.2 million paying users, according to a Media Partners update.

Aggressively priced packages from mobile operators have helped Netflix grow in key SEA markets. (Shutterstock)
Aggressively priced packages from mobile operators have helped Netflix grow in key SEA markets. (Shutterstock)
According to new data from Media Partners Asia, four Southeast Asia markets (Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) added a total of 3 million new video-on-demand or SVOD subscrbers in Q2 2020. Total SVOD paying subscribers, unadjusted for overlapping users or subscriptions, reached around 10 million in Q2 2020, versus approximately 7 million in Q1 2020, an update to Southeast Asia Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics: A Definitive Study, has revealed.

However, the report also shows the different stages of evolution of SVOD in these markets. In Indonesia and Thailand, SVOD has a long way to go, but is showing encouraging signs of growth, driven by affordable plans by key operators catering to the mobile mass market. In contrast, Singapore is a far more mature market, although it also continues to grow.


Netflix has grown significantly in the first half of 2020, driven by aggressively priced packages with mobile operators and the explosion of interest in Korean content, original shows and local acquisitions. In terms of the competition. Viu’s numbers are driven by its Korean day-and-date content and local acquisitions and originals in markets such as Thailand.

In these four markets, overall streaming minutes on mobile grew 30% quarter-over-quarter in Q1 2020 and a further 19% in Q2 to reach 657 billion, according to Media Partners Asia. YouTube’s share of streaming minutes was 84% in Q2, driven by free-to-air (FTA) TV content, music and user-generated kids content. Outside of YouTube, total streaming minutes grew 57% to reach 107 billion in Q2, versus 68 billion in Q1.

Other notable players with at least a 20% share of total streaming minutes included Indonesia’s Vidio; China’s iQiyi, which is expanding slowly across Southeast Asia; WeTV and Line TV in Thailand; and iFlix. In Q2, iflix’s assets were acquired by Tencent, which also owns WeTV.

Source:
Campaign Asia

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