Spending on video content in seven major markets across Asia is expected to climb to $15.1 billion in 2026, according to Media Partners Asia‘s “Asia Video Content Dynamics 2026” report. Streaming and local film account for nearly all new spending as television budgets shrink.
The study covers India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. MPA puts 2025 spending across the seven markets at $14.8 billion and projects it will reach $15.4 billion by 2031.
Television still takes about 60% of the total, against 30% for online video and 10% for film. Korea, at $6.9 billion, and India, at $5 billion, together made up roughly 80% of 2025 investment.
“The viewership data shows demand is intact. Premium VOD engagement continues to grow across India, Korea and Southeast Asia, streaming now leads content investment in India, and local stories are winning at the box office from Hanoi to Jakarta and Mumbai. This is a story of reallocation rather than retreat as capital moves toward streaming and local film, where both audiences and returns are growing,” said Myat Pan Phyu, an analyst at MPA.
The money picture is less rosy. The region’s media businesses have big audiences and plenty of creative talent, yet the report finds that this reach is not reliably turning into healthy profits. Many long-established companies trade well under their equity book value. In MPA’s view, the firms that build value will be the ones that spend capital wisely, trim costs and defend the content that genuinely sets them apart.
India hit a turning point last year. Online video claimed 46% of the country’s content investment in 2025, edging past TV at 42% and taking the lead for the first time. Indian viewers logged 420 billion hours of online video over the year. JioHotstar holds a 58% share of premium VOD viewing in the country and has more than 180 million paying subscribers.
In Korea, TVING ranks a clear second in the market behind Netflix. Indonesian platform Vidio, which leads its home market with more than 6 million paying subscribers, has been EBITDA-positive since the fourth quarter of 2025.
Sports rights are what set streamers apart, according to MPA. Cricket helped push JioHotstar’s connected-TV reach up 26% during the 2026 Indian Premier League cricket tournament, while exclusive KBO baseball coverage took TVING from 5.3 million to 6.5 million subscribers. Coupang Play has built the widest premium sports offering in Korea. Vidio spreads Indonesian football, the Champions League and the Premier League across its pricing tiers. In Vietnam, the FIFA World Cup lifted premium VOD viewing by 22% this year.
The report picks out local film as the clearest opportunity for growth in the region. In Vietnam, box office grew 20% to $213 million in 2025, with homegrown titles taking 69% of receipts. Indonesian box office rose 10.5% to $325 million, 60% of it from local films. India set a box office record of $1.41 billion. In Korea, a stronger domestic lineup is fueling a sizable theatrical rebound in 2026.
Television looks weaker. People are still watching, but the revenue keeps slipping. Thai TV advertising dropped 18% to $422 million in 2025, and MPA says several markets are carrying more broadcast capacity than their ad income can support.
Producers are feeling the squeeze too. Broadcasters and streamers have grown choosier about what they order, which hurts companies that live on production fees. Value is moving toward integrated studios and toward producers that own IP, have repeat buyers or earn money from several sources. Production in Korea costs more than anywhere else in Asia, and drama margins there have been compressed to between 5% and 10%. Southeast Asia is cheaper, but tighter commissioning is hitting it as well.
“Asia’s video industries are not short of audiences or creative capability. They are short of structures that convert both into sustainable returns. As the margin for error narrows, management quality will become decisive. Companies that rationalize legacy costs through restructuring and the adoption of new technologies such as AI, collaborate where independent investment no longer makes sense and protect the content that gives viewers a reason to stay will increasingly outperform, and the valuation gap between winners and losers will widen,” said Stephen Laslocky, vice president at MPA.
Of the seven markets, MPA sees India and Korea as furthest along the road to consolidation. India set the pace with a definitive transaction – the 2024 merger of Reliance’s Viacom18 and Disney’s Star India that created JioStar – and more M&A could follow. Korea is looking to the proposed TVING-Wavve combination to unlock value. Southeast Asia has lagged, though the firm sees clear scope for collaboration and consolidation in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.
Separately, MPA estimates that reorganizing CJ ENM into four clearly defined businesses could support an equity valuation far above the company’s current market value.
Leave a Reply