Asia Pacific will have close to 700m SVoD subs by 2026, Digital TV Research finds

Click to enlarge

Asia Pacific will account for 698 million SVoD subscriptions by 2026, up from 502 million by the end of 2021, according to a report by UK analysis firm Digital TV Research.

Chinese SVoD platforms will provide 354 million subscriptions in 2026, half of the region’s total. This is followed by Disney+ with 120.9 million, Amazon Prime Video at 52.6 million and Netflix at 50.2 million.

Disney+ overtook Netflix in subscriber terms in 2020, almost entirely due to its success in India, which will have 157 million SVoD subscriptions overall by 2026. Disney+’s 2026 figure will be double its 2021 total.

Subscriptions for Viu, meanwhile, will reach 8.7 million by 2026, followed by HBO Max with 6.5 million and Apple TV+ at 5.5 million. Other platforms combined will total 99.7 million subs by 2026.

Among the Chinese platforms, Tencent Video will have the highest number of subscribers at 98.7 million by 2026, followed by iQiyi at 76.8 million, Youku at 48.1 million, Mango at 42.8 million and Bilibili at 18 million. Other Chinese platforms combined will total 69.4 million.

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “China will remain dominant, although its growth will slow. This is due to new online anti-fan regulations that limit game time for minors and force SVoD platforms to screen fewer reality shows. This will dampen interest in SVoD.”

The news comes after Digital TV Research last week released data that said gross SVoD subscriptions in the US market will rise by 33% from 338 million at the end of 2021 to 450 million by 2026, while SVoD subs in Latin America will reach 131 million by 2026, up from 76 million by the end of 2021.

The company also forecast the number of SVoD subscribers in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region will reach 15 million across 13 MENA countries by 2026. This figure is up from 8.61 million in 2021, with Netflix reaching 5.4 million subs and OSN, backed by its Disney+ deal, reaching 2.6 million by that year.

SVoD subs in Africa, meanwhile, were predicted to reach 15.06 million by 2026. Digital TV Research said this figure is almost triple the 5.11 million SVoD subscribers expected at the end of 2021. South Africa and Nigeria will each contribute 2.3 million out of the 10 million new additions and will be the only countries with more than one million subs in 2026.