India will continue its growth, adding 92m subscribers in the coming years to reach 176m in 2027.
The Asia-Pacific region is set to reach 746m SVOD subscriptions by 2027, up from 541m in 2021, according to the Asia Pacific SVOD Forecasts report from Digital TV Research.
China will have 364m SVOD subscriptions in 2027 – or 49% of the region’s total. India will add 92mto reach 176m in 2027.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “The six major US-based platforms [Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+] will only control a quarter of Asia Pacific’s SVOD subscriptions by 2027 – much lower than in any other region in the world. These platforms will never gain access to China and India has plenty of local players.”
Disney+ overtook Netflix in subscriber terms in 2020 – almost entirely due to its success in India. Disney+ Hotstar reshaped the SVOD landscape in India, mainly by controlling the rights to India Premier League cricket. Disney+ Hotstar did not retain the IPL rights from 2023. The platform will lose 4.5m subscribers in 2022 and 10m in 2023 before plateauing.
Assuming that Disney+ retained the IPL rights in India, the previous forecasts estimated 127m Disney+ subscribers across the region by 2027. The revised forecasts predict 66m by 2027 – 61m less.
