Bali was awash with business suits on Wednesday as global media and technology executives flocked to the tropical island for the first day of APOS, the annual media, telecommunications and entertainment industry conference. With the film and television industry facing some economic headwinds in more mature markets in Europe and North America, executives gathered in Indonesia to network and discuss the trends shaping Asia’s diverse but collectively massive entertainment landscape.
From its humble beginnings in 2010 as a convention catering to the cable and satellite industries, APOS has grown into a must-attend event in the fall calendar for people from global giants like Netflix, Disney, Amazon, YouTube, Meta and TikTok, as well as regional heavyweights like India’s Reliance Jio, Japan’s U-Next, Korea’s CJ ENM and Indonesia’s SCMA. For that, the event’s organizers, regional consultancy Media Partners Asia (MPA), can thank both the relentless growth of online video and a shrewd choice of venue, on the sprawling grounds of the five-star Anaya Resort Bali overlooking the Indian Ocean.
James Gibbons, president of APAC for Warner Bros. Discovery, made headlines earlier in the day with the announcement of Max’s anticipated launch dates in key markets including Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. But before the event really got underway, in true APOS fashion, Vivek Couto, managing partner of MPA, set the agenda for the two-day gathering with a keynote address that identified key themes in the region’s ongoing evolution.
The scene inside APOS 2024 in Bali, Indonesia.
APO
Couto largely had a tale of two constituencies to tell. In the developed but aging markets of North Asia and the Pacific (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand), he noted that global video platforms are largely mimicking their strategies in the West, leveraging already sizable subscriber bases by introducing price increases and advertising tiers for greater ROI and deeper penetration. By contrast, in the region’s developing markets, where GDP per capita is low but populations are young and growth potential remains significant (notably India and Southeast Asian dynamos Vietnam and Indonesia), platforms remain focused on steadily expanding the total addressable pie for premium video, primarily through new subscriptions.
Couto noted that local content remains king across Asia, with Korean dramas and reality shows, Japanese anime and, increasingly, Chinese dramas, driving engagement in many of the region’s key markets. In India, meanwhile, sports rights, particularly JioCinema’s live coverage of the Indian Premier League cricket, but also the Olympics and the English Premier League, play a disproportionate role. Asia’s many local video platforms therefore enjoy significant market share thanks to their strong content pipelines and local market adaptation.
But global players are over-indexing when it comes to monetization, Couto said. The MPA forecasts that the top four U.S. online video platforms (Amazon, Meta, Netflix and YouTube) will earn about $21.6 billion in video-related revenue in Asia Pacific this year, more than double the $9.6 billion brought in by the top eight regional platforms, Disney/Viacom18, CJ ENM, U-Next, PCCW, Foxtel, NC, Asto and Indonesia’s SCMA. On a globalized basis, local players’ firepower disadvantage is more severe and suggests long-term challenges: when comparing consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) at the consolidated group level, the top four global ones top $204 billion, compared with just over $1.2 billion for the eight regional ones.
In other words, Couto said he believes major streaming platforms are pushing to move users toward churn-resistant annual subscription plans, a desire that’s one of the factors behind recent price hikes for premium monthly subscriptions and rising advertising loads on ad-supported tiers.
From left: Vivek Couto, managing partner, Media Partners Asia; Doug Lowther, CEO, Irdeto; Rohan Tiwary, head of APAC emerging and enterprise, platforms and devices at Google; Winradit Kolasastraseni, president of digital media, True Digital Group; Alistair Hill, co-founder and CEO, On Device Research.
APO
“Platforms are building their business strategies differently” around key partners in each market, Couto added. “Netflix, which started with a relentless focus on direct-to-consumer, is now leaning more on partners for the next phase of growth,” while Disney “is going in the opposite direction with an increasing focus on D2C product.”
“Warner with Max will try to find a balance in different markets,” Couto said, noting the company’s ongoing launch in Japan through a deal with local streamer U-Next.
MPA also predicts that TV will fade into the Asian ad business over the next five years. Between 2020 and 2024, the APAC video industry will add $15 billion in incremental ad dollars, according to data presented by Couto, with $12.5 billion of growth coming from user-generated video content on social platforms, $1 million from premium AVOD services, and $1 billion from TV.
“Over the next five years, we expect the industry to add $9.6 billion in ad dollars,” Couto added, “but TV will decline by $5 billion, social UGC will add $10.7 billion, and premium AVOD will add $4 billion.”
The APOS will continue until September 26th.