Indonesia's cumulative subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) universe reached 7 million customers in mid-Jan 2021 and while encouraging, the market still has a long way to go says a study from AMPD Research (AMPD).
The 7 million subs were found to be spread across the top 10 operators in the most populous market in Asia after China and India and represented a net addition of 3.6 million new subscribers between 5 September 2020 and 6 January 2021. Yet the cumulative SVOD penetration was just less than 3% of the country’s population and 10% of households, indicating said AMPD significant scope for future growth as investment in local and Asian content accelerated.
The leading four SVOD platforms accounted for 83% of the total subscriber base with Disney+ Hotstar in the lead with 2.5 million customers followed by Viu (1.5 million), Vidio (1.1 million) and Netflix (0.85 million). AMPD also found that SVOD customers in Indonesia are now subscribing to an average of 2.8 services versus 2.1 in Q1 2020. Customers are now paying an average of US$2.1 per month for SVOD services versus US$2.8 in Q1 2020.
“Much of the recent growth is driven by aggressive mobile distribution and pricing with Disney+ Hotstar leading the way through its partnership with Telkomsel. At the same time, Viu and Vidio continue to grow through mobile, and Netflix has capitalised on its mobile pricing plans said AMPD MD Anthony Dobson commenting on the findings. “SVOD consumption through the big screen has also started to grow, benefiting players such as Vidio in particular along with the broader market. Disney's consumption continues to grow on the back of its core franchises, including family movies and series, local movies, general entertainment episodic series and animation. Vidio & Viu, both freemium services, continue to experience heavy consumption with Vidio benefiting from original local dramas and Viu capitalising on acquired Korean day and date content.”
Going forward AMPD expected subscribers to WeTV and iQIYI to grow in the future as both players are starting to experience significant consumption for local, Chinese and Korean dramas and Japanese anime on their free tier.