U.S., Korean Content Dominates Streaming Consumption Across Most of Asia-Pacific: Study

Patrick Brzeski
·3 min read
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Film and TV content originating from the U.S. and Korea remain the two pillars of subscription video consumption across the growth markets of the Asia-Pacific region, according to a new report from regional consultancy Media Partners Asia.

The report’s researchers used a proprietary measurement tool to weigh SVOD viewership across the 10 leading markets of APAC — excluding India and the highly regulated China market — for a period covering Jan. 2022 to March 2023. They found that U.S.-originating content took a 30 percent share of total viewership in the region, while Korean content led all categories with a 40 percent share.

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Australia, a $2.2 billion SVOD market, exhibits the highest reliance on U.S. entertainment with a 72 percent slice of total local viewership, while Korean content takes only 4 percent in that English language-led market. But in the growing markets of Southeast Asia — including population centers like Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam — U.S. and Korean content each account for around 30 percent to 40 percent of content consumption. In Japan and South Korea, the two most developed economies in the region, worth a cumulative $5.5 billion, U.S. content has relatively limited impact on generating subscriptions, while local live action — primarily Korean drama — and Japanese anime, is far more powerful. U.S. content took just a 13 percent share of SVOD consumption in Korea, and 16 percent in Japan.

“U.S. originals on Netflix are increasingly launched with Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, and Tagalog dubs, expanding their reach and accessibility in Asia,” says Dhivya T, head of content insights at MPA. “Strong fandoms have developed around many of Netflix’s top originals, building on multi-season momentum, like Stranger Things Season 4, You Season 4, and Bridgerton Season 2, while Disney taps into Marvel, Star Wars and family franchise fan bases.”

Dhivya adds that sci-fi and fantasy emerged as the most popular U.S. content genre in Asia over the past year, while comedy rules in Australia. She also notes that U.S. unscripted content has exhibited limited appeal in Asia-Pacific, other than in Australia, while Korean unscripted shows — such as Netflix’s hit Physical 100 — have connected broadly in Southeast Asia. On Disney+, the streamer’s Star general entertainment vertical also hasn’t done much to drive consumption and subscriptions in Southeast Asia and East Asia, with viewers there much preferring Disney’s flagship Marvel, Star Wars and other franchise IP, as well as its growing Korean originals output.

The report also found that third-party studios drive significant U.S. demand across platforms, with the exception of Disney+ where most content supplied is owned by Disney’s various general entertainment, franchise and family properties. Licensed titles from Warner Bros. Discovery (Friends); NBCU (Brooklyn Nine-Nine); Sony (Venom, Spider-Man); Paramount (SpongeBob, Big Bang Theory) contributed material viewership on Netflix. Warner Bros. Discovery titles, particularly HBO dramas (House of the Dragon, The Last of Us), capture significant viewership on Binge (Australia), while Paramount drives much of TVING’s (Korea) very limited U.S. content demand.

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