APAC-produced content wins viewers during pandemic: Circus Social

As consumers across Asia-Pacific look for ways to entertain themselves during the lockdown, they are spending a growing amount of time on a raft of homegrown and local video streaming services. While audiences in developed markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia are the largest consumers of this content, a new report from Circus Social shows that emerging markets are driving the growth. 

As the chart above shows, mature economies are leading the conversations around streaming video in APAC, but according to the chart below, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand are leading in terms of interest, with interest in Singapore evidently on the wane. This could be attributed to a saturation in developed markets, while in developing ones, OTT platforms have just begun to make their mark, and the pandemic has catalysed their adoption. 

According to Circus Social's findings, variance can be seen not only in the pace of consumer interest in OTTs but also in the wide spread of content being consumer, given the plurality of languages and cultures in the region. The study shows that while Korean and western content is popular around the region, native content has been gaining popularity. There has also been a surge in popularity for older films, namely Beetlejuice (Australia), Akira (Japan) and Wizard of Oz (1939).

As platforms duel for the attention of consumers in this time, the company's report shows that people are also keenly hunting down deals and discounts. In a market with a multitude of options, these platforms are also offering incentives ranging from discounts to reduced bandwidth use to hold subscribers' attention.