Content investment across TV, film, online video in India at $3.6 bn in 2018
2 min read 24 Jul 2019, 05:39 PM ISTThe country shows the highest rate of investment growth in southeast Asia, according to an annual report by Media Partners AsiaThe report attributes the 24% surge in content investment in India to a major outlay on premium sports rights in 2018
PremiumNEW DELHI : Content spends in India across TV, film and online video rose 24% in 2018 to touch $3.6 billion. The country shows the highest rate of investment growth in southeast Asia which saw an overall rise of 12% year-on-year to touch an investment of $10 billion, according to the latest edition of Asia Video Content Dynamics, an annual report published by Media Partners Asia (MPA), an independent provider of research, advisory and consulting services across the media, entertainment, sports, telecommunications and technology industries in Asia Pacific.
Asia Video Content Dynamics tracks investment, production and consumption for TV, film and online video across India, Korea and south east Asia’s five biggest growth markets (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam).
MPA attributes the 24% surge in content investment in India to a major outlay on premium sports rights in 2018, including big price increase for IPL cricket, supported by continued growth and competition in TV, especially among regional languages outside the Hindi heartland.
Growth in TV entertainment is likely to soften in 2019, due to new regulations on channel pricing and bundling introduced earlier this year, though underlying trends remain strong, it said. The new tariff order introduced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) earlier this year allows customers and pick and pay for individual channels as opposed to bouquets offered by broadcasters earlier.
The overall 12% increase, up from 8% in 2017, highlights rising competition for audiences and production talent, especially in India and Korea, two of Asia’s most dynamic production and content hubs. Together, India and Korea accounted for more than 75% of video content spend across the report’s seven surveyed markets last year, the report said.
“The outlook remains healthy across much of Asia for the video content industry, with aggregate budgets scaling up in TV, film and online video across our surveyed markets. Much of this growth came from India and Korea, two large production dynamos with deep pools of talent," said Stephen Laslocky, vice-president, MPA, in a statement.
“Investment in online video content continues to scale, up 60% in aggregate to reach $858 million across the seven surveyed markets, powered by rapid growth in India, boosted by Amazon, Hotstar and Netflix in particular. Online video accounted for 14% of all video content spend in India last year, the highest proportion of all our surveyed markets. Growth in online video budgets is also accelerating from a low base across much of south east Asia, although investment remains underweight in Thailand and Vietnam. Online video budgets are also constrained in Korea, due to the popularity of VOD (video-on-demand) services from incumbent IPTV (Internet protocol television) platforms," Laslocky added.
