Asia-Pacific Over The Top (OTT) Market Outlook, 2028

Asia-Pacific Over The Top (OTT) Market Outlook, 2028

Asia Pacific is expected to gain exponential growth during the forecast period. As per the obtained data, the region has outnumbered the OTT subscribers' list than the U.S. The significantly mature Telco and broadcaster sector is likely to drive the market growth. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to make significant contributions to the overall market expansion in the coming years. This dominance is backed by the massive population and their growing inclination toward entertainment, leaving no age bracket out of the loop. Besides, the prevalence of Bollywood and the constant release of new movies and web series, especially across countries like India, is also fuelling the demand for OTT platforms and generating lucrative opportunities for the leading players in the industry through 2027. Increased emphasis on customer experience and personalization with the help of ever-growing technology to safeguard revenue and attain growth in the long term has proved to be one of the critical drivers for the growth of the market. At a macro level, Asia has benefited from a growing middle class. A rising per capita income across the region has been accompanied by an increase in disposable income and OTT has capitalised on this trend. Affordable pricing plans and improved payment options together with a greater willingness to pay for quality content have all contributed to the continued growth of OTT.

According to the research report, “Asia-Pacific Over The Top Market Outlook, 2028” published by Bonafide Research, the market was calculated to be USD 62.27 Billion market size in 2022. As high-speed Internet has become easily affordable, viewers/audiences that prefer good quality content prefer smart TVs over other television systems. Also, the growing admiration for OTT streaming in audio-visual content is impacting the overall media and entertainment market positively in the Asia Pacific. With the 5G technology expected to become the most significant next-generation cellular network technology in 2020, especially in urban areas, the increasing adoption of OTT (Over-the-top) content will continue to grow. Asia-Pacific is estimated to witness lucrative growth as some OTT providers, such as Sony Pictures, SingTel and Warner Media, Home Box Office (HBO), Inc. are expanding its footprint in the region. For instance, in May 2018, HBO GO, a streaming service by HBO, Inc. was launched in Indonesia. The service is also currently available in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The growth of video streaming in Asia-Pacific was in the spotlight at the 2022 OTT Summit, hosted virtually by the Asia Video Industry Association. Although streaming has been at the forefront of significant changes within the Asia-Pacific video industry in recent years, most executives maintained cautious optimism with regards to growth opportunities available for over-the-top video in the region.

According to the report, the market is segmented into major five countries including China, Japan, Australia, India and South Korea. Among them, China is leading the market in 2022 however; India is projected to grow with higher CAGR for 2023-28. China is expected to dominate the region owing to the rapidly cannibalized pay-TV segment. India is set to experience the remarkable expansion of platforms. This is likely to fuel the growth opportunities in the region. In February 2021, The Union Government announced Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, citing the arbitrariness across the OTT platforms. The new rule seeks to establish a three-tier Grievance Redressal Mechanism for OTT platforms. On the other hand, Australia stands out in Asia-Pacific as the market where Netflix is most heavily penetrated. Viewership is more comparable to North America and Western Europe, with 73.8% of subscription OTT users watching Netflix. Its large library of English content and the popularity of OTT services made entry relatively easy. The leading OTT service providers like Netflix and Amazon are now expanding their footprints in the Asia Pacific economies. Moreover, the local market players have also initiated in providing OTT services such as the Zee5 in India. This initiation can be ascribed to the population attraction towards streaming services like these. Having said that, the increased mobile internet penetration in Japan, China, and India is supported by the high-speed data at minimal pricing, can also be a significant contributing factor in market growth.

The market position of OTT services is at developing stages and has a high scope for improvement in the Asia-Pacific countries. Moreover, there is a significant return on investment in the market because there are immense opportunities for augmented performance. Therefore, the vendors of OTT platforms constantly visualize the need for platforms and services across the regions. Also, the increased number of smart connected devices can be perceived as a major factor that drives the growth of the over-the-top market. Several consumers have an inclined preference for watching online content on their tablets or smartphones. The smartphones & tablets segment dominated the market in 2022 and is expected to witness significant traction over the forecast period as well, owing to the substantial growth in the number of subscribers that use smartphones & tablets as a platform for streaming videos. The fact that India and China have the world’s largest base of smartphone and internet users also works in favour of the smartphones & tablets segment.

The smart TV segment is also projected to witness significant traction over the forecast period. Smart TVs are increasingly becoming popular among consumers as they provide easy access to the internet and enable connectivity with external devices. The gaming consoles and laptops & desktops segments are estimated to witness moderate growth prospects in the coming years. Further to the latest OTT trends, streaming 4K video takes upto around 30Mbps on internet bandwidth. To stream such high-resolution video, one must have at least double that bandwidth available, which is unusual for consumer-grade internet connections. However, with the rise of 5G, the extra bandwidth will make it possible for 4K and VR (Virtual Reality) streaming to be one of the defining features during the forecast period. Such an upsurge in demand for high-resolution video will eventually lead to the adoption of superior wireless networking standards and therefore boost the penetration of the media and entertainment market further.

Increased adoption of novel technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence to improve video streaming is expected to boost the growth prospects of the market over the forecast period. Furthermore, the growing adoption of cloud-based video streaming solutions for increasing the reach of video content is directly influencing the growth of the market. This trend is observed in numerous countries of the Asia Pacific region. Cost reduction and innovations in the delivery of video services are also projected to play a marginal role in the growth of the market over the forecast period. To address the issue of lack of digital connectivity in the industry, market leaders are focusing on finding ways of improving coverage in areas lacking in basic infrastructure. Resultantly, developing countries in the Asia Pacific region are expected to experience rapid adoption of video services on mobile computing devices. OTT providers like Netflix have demonstrated that original content is a big draw, with TV shows like ‘The Crown’ bringing fresh subscribers. This is true to the point that Netflix’s subscription sign ups and cancellations can correlate to a popular show’s first and final episodes respectively. Local content has also proven successful with players like Hotstar building deep libraries of strong local content as a strategic differentiator.

High-speed internet technologies provide easy access to any form of video content on different networking platforms. Social media platforms such as Facebook, FaceTime, Google Hangout, Instagram, and Reddit provide easy access to videos and real-time entertainment services. The rising user base of these platforms also serves as a driver for video streaming services and is likely to work well in favor of the Asia Pacific video streaming market in the next few years. These trends have also led to a notable rise in the production of on-demand content services and are expected to drive the growth of the region’s video streaming market. Based on the type, Asia-Pacific is considered to be one of the world's largest SVOD markets in terms of subscriptions and the world's fastest growing market. Asia Pacific appears to be one of the few places in the world where consumers are still taking up online streaming in huge numbers.
Globecast, the global solutions provider for media and content management, has announced that renowned sports content provider beIN ASIA PACFIC has selected Globecast to provide multifaceted media processing and delivery services to the sports provider’s Asia-Pacific division. beIN ASIA PACIFIC is part of beIN MEDIA GROUP and is headquartered in Singapore. It operates in 11 countries across the Asia-Pacific region – Australia, New Zealand, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Singapore. beIN offers a comprehensive line-up of live sporting events through its channel, beIN SPORTS and live streaming app, beIN SPORTS CONNECT. With 15 unique channel feeds, beIN offers fans extensive live sports coverage in Thai, Bahasa, Cantonese and English. beIN SPORTS is available on major pay-TV platforms in the region.

The players operating in the OTT services market are focusing on mergers and acquisitions and service launches for bolstering their position in the industry. For example, The Walt Disney Company completed the acquisition of the Indian OTT giant Hotstar in July 2020 and renamed it to Disney + Hotstar. This acquisition took nearly one year to materialize and The Walt Disney Company predicts to compete with various regional video streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. Likewise, telecom operator Jio announced in July 2020 that it will introduce 12 OTT apps, such as Amazon Prime, Voot, Disney + Hotstar, SonyLiv, Netflix, Zee5, YouTube, JioSaavn, and JioCinema under its application Jio TV+, which will make these services available on a single platform that can be viewed on TVs. Some of the major OTT services market players are Roku Inc., Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., The Walt Disney Company, Facebook Inc., Google LLC (YouTube), Kakao Corp, Rakuten Inc., and Telstra Corporation Ltd. In the Video on Demand (VOD) category, some of the prominent players in the Asia-Pacific region include Netflix, Youku Tudou, iQiyi, Viu, Tencent Video, LeTV, Hooq, Amazon Prime Video, iFlix, YuppTV, Hotstar, NexGTV, Spuul, Eros Now, BoxTV, Catchplay, Hulu, dTV, Pooq, Tving, Watcha Play, etc.

The OTT services market in Asia was further bolstered by the severe impact of COVID-19 which resulted in many countries opting for multiple lockdowns. This resulted in many East Asian counties such as Korea and Japan where the population had fully embraced OTT services during the pandemic. These lockdowns have further resulted in an increase of over 60% in weekly average minutes spent on OTT services. Shutting down of movie theatres, and entertainment zones have further leaded to the rising demand and have thereby resulted in many production companies shifting towards OTT platforms for their movie or television show launches.

Furthermore, there are several start-ups operating in the OTT (Over-the-Top) media space in the Asia-Pacific region. Some of the most notable ones include:
• iQiyi: A Chinese-based streaming service that offers a wide range of movies, TV shows, and original content.
• Hotstar: An Indian-based streaming service that offers a wide range of movies, TV shows, and live sports events.
• Viu: A Hong Kong-based streaming service that offers a wide range of Korean dramas and other Asian content.
• HOOQ: A Southeast Asian-based streaming service that offers a wide range of movies, TV shows, and original content.
• Iflix: A Southeast Asian-based streaming service that offers a wide range of movies, TV shows, and live TV channels.
These are just a few examples of the many start-ups operating in the OTT media space in the Asia-Pacific region, and the list is constantly growing as new companies enter the market and existing ones expand their offerings.

Major Companies present in the market:
Netflix, Inc, The Walt Disney Company, Apple, Inc, Amazon.com, Inc., Paramount Global, Warnermedia Direct, Llc, Sling Tv Llc, Rakuten Group, Inc, Kakao Entertainment Co, Ltd, Alphabet Inc (Google, Youtube), Microsoft Corporation, Telstra Corporation Ltd, Roku, Inc, Meta Platforms, Inc., Indieflix Gropu Inc., Home box office, Tencent

Considered in this report
• Geography: Asia-Pacific
• Historic year: 2017
• Base year: 2022
• Estimated year: 2023
• Forecast year: 2028

Aspects covered in this report
• Asia-Pacific Over The Top (OTT) market with its value and forecast along with its segments
• Country-wise Over The Top (OTT) market analysis
• Various drivers and challenges
• On-going trends and developments
• Top profiled companies
• Strategic recommendation

Countries covered in the report:
• China
• Japan
• India
• Australia
• South Korea

By Type:
• AVOD (Advertising-based Video On Demand)
• SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand)
• TVOD (Transactional Video on Demand)
• Others

By Device Type:
• Smartphones and Tablets
• Desktops and Laptops
• Smart TVs & Set-Top Box
• Gaming Consoles & Streaming Devices

By Content Type:
• Video Streaming
• Game Streaming
• Audio Streaming
• Communication

By Service Verticals:
• Media and Entertainment
• Education and Learning
• Gaming
• Service Utilities

By User Type:
• Personal
• Commercial

By Component Type:
• Solution
• Services

The approach of the report:
This report consists of a combined approach of primary as well as secondary research. Initially, secondary research was used to get an understanding of the market and list out the companies that are present in the market. The secondary research consists of third-party sources such as press releases, and annual reports of companies, analyzing the government-generated reports and databases. After gathering the data from secondary sources primary research was conducted by making telephonic interviews with the leading players about how the market is functioning and then conducting trade calls with dealers and distributors of the market. Post this we have started doing primary calls to consumers by equally segmenting consumers into regional aspects, tier aspects, age groups, and gender. Once we have primary data with us we started verifying the details obtained from secondary sources.

Intended audience
This report can be useful to industry consultants, manufacturers, suppliers, associations & organizations related to the Over The Top (OTT) industry, government bodies, and other stakeholders to align their market-centric strategies. In addition to marketing & presentations, it will also increase competitive knowledge about the industry.