OTT video markets in Asia-Pacific (AP) differ largely due to demographic and economic factors and the telecom landscape. Markets with high adoption rates of pay-TV, fixed broadband and mobile broadband see the most robust and innovative OTT ecosystems.

In South Korea and Singapore, where smartphone and pay-TV penetration rates exceed 80 per cent, there are OTT services that function as linear and SVoD TV-everywhere complements to traditional pay-TV services. These have evolved either through telecom operators or pay-TV providers offering an OTT service themselves, for example Hooq from Singtel, or through broadcasters leveraging their assets on the Internet, like Pooq from South Korea’s terrestrial broadcasters or Toggle from FTA providers in Singapore. OTT services in both markets see heavy traffic from mobile networks.

Markets with low pay-TV penetration, low broadband penetration or low smartphone penetration see lower levels of OTT adoption and simpler services.

Key Findings
– Best practices from Asia-Pacific providers show how important hybrid models are to success in OTT video. OTT providers in markets that score lower on the Readiness and Intensity sections of the Pyramid Research OTT Video Market Attractiveness Index should consider focusing on AVoD before introducing SVoD and TVoD services.– The importance of mobile service in Asia-Pacific should not be underestimated: in emerging Asia, mobile networks offer a way to expand the addressable OTT market, while Wi-Fi represents a key enabler technology for nomadic usage in developed Asia.- Pure-play OTT players and telecom operators should seek to partner in order to create value. Operators can differentiate themselves better and increase customer loyalty by using an OTT service; for pure-play OTTs, meanwhile, partnering with operators can boost customer acquisition by exposing households to the service via pre-established customer relationships.

– Media companies should repackage their content into OTT services in order to leverage their cost advantages and to future-proof their business as media consumption increasingly comes from online sources.

– In light of lower-income households getting connected globally, pay-TV and telecom operators in APAC should look at addressing this segment by launching a low-cost, stand-alone and mobile-focused OTT video service packed with relevant content. This would significant expand the operator’s addressable market and have the indirect benefit of reducing online piracy.