Online video content spends in India 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. 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 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. 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.

(Live Mint)