iWorld
MPA’s AVB 2026: Streaming, social video and CTV drive Asia-Pacific video revenue growth
SINGAPORE: Forget the remote control. Asia-Pacific’s couch potatoes are voting with their thumbs — and the verdict is brutal for old-school television. Media Partners Asia’s annual assessment of the region’s video industry – the Asia-Pacific Video & Broadband 2026 (AVB 2026) report – reveals that between now and 2030, streaming and social video will hoover up nearly $24 billion in new revenue while traditional television haemorrhages $8 billion. Call it creative destruction, Pacific style.
The numbers tell a tale of two screens. Premium video-on-demand—the Netflixes and Disney+s of the world, plus ad-supported alternatives—will balloon by $12.5 billion to hit $52 billion by decade’s end. User-generated and social video, led by YouTube and ByteDance’s TikTok and Douyin empire, will pocket another $11.4 billion to reach $44.5 billion. That makes creator-led platforms the single fattest cash cow in the region’s screen economy. Linear television, meanwhile, continues its slow-motion car crash.
“Value is shifting decisively toward streaming, social platforms and CTV-led monetisation,” says Media Partners Asia chief executive Vivek Couto with admirable understatement. Winners, he reckons, won’t just pile up eyeballs. They’ll need to monetise “premium experiences”—think sports, high-quality local programming, and the surprise hit of micro-dramas—whilst deploying AI to squeeze costs across the content chain.
The Asia-Pacific screen industry will expand at 2.8 per cent annually through 2030, topping $196 billion. But here’s the kicker: every dollar of net growth comes from online video, which charges ahead at seven per cent a year. Traditional television? It’s running backwards.
India is staging a particularly dramatic coup. By 2030 it will overtake China as the region’s subscription king, boasting 358 milion individual subscriptions. Yet India’s total premium video revenue—subscriptions plus advertising—will still be 4.5 times smaller than China’s and 2.5 times smaller than Japan’s. Volume, it seems, doesn’t always mean value.
The big are getting bigger, too. The top 15 online video platforms gobbled up 58 per cent of total online video revenues in 2025. YouTube, ByteDance, Netflix and national champions like JioHotstar and U-NEXT are pulling away from the pack. China, Japan and India—the region’s three heavyweights—account for nearly 70 per cent of traditional television’s decline.
Connected television is the new battleground, turning living rooms into digital billboards. As CTV inventory expands, it’s pulling advertising dollars away from linear broadcasts and into algorithmic targeting. The future of video, it turns out, looks a lot like the internet: fragmented, data-driven and utterly ruthless.
Traditional broadcasters can read the writing on the wall—or rather, on the second screen propped next to the television set. The era of appointment viewing is toast. The streaming wars have come to Asia, and they’re not taking prisoners.
iWorld
Subedaar puts Indian original cinema on the global map with record-breaking Prime Video debut
MUMBAI: Prime Video has a runaway hit on its hands. Subedaar, the gritty action drama starring Anil Kapoor, has stormed to become the most-watched Indian original movie on the platform in its opening weekend, cracking the Top 10 across 31 countries and landing in 91 per cent of India’s pin codes within days of its March 5 premiere.
The film, a visceral, emotionally-charged story of a retired soldier, Subedaar Arjun Maurya, wrestling with civilian life amid crime and corruption, has struck a nerve. Directed by Suresh Triveni and co-starring Radhikka Madan, Mona Singh, Saurabh Shukla, Aditya Rawal, Faisal Malik, and Khushboo Sundar, the film is already being hailed as a showcase for what Indian original storytelling can achieve on the world stage.
“Subedaar’s success is a reflection of the growing scale and global resonance of Indian storytelling,” said Nikhil Madhok, director and head of originals at Prime Video India. “The film’s emotional narrative, its rooted portrayal of a soldier confronting his toughest battles beyond the battlefield, has struck a chord. Anil Kapoor delivers an acting masterclass, while Suresh Triveni’s solid direction and great performances from the ensemble cast have resulted in love and appreciation from customers across the world.”
Kapoor, 62, has been here before, but rarely at this altitude. Written by Triveni and Prajwal Chandrashekar, with dialogues by Triveni, Saurabh Dwivedi, and Chandrashekar, the film is a production by Opening Image Films in association with Anil Kapoor Film & Communication Network (AKFCN), produced by Vikram Malhotra, Kapoor, and Triveni.
Subedaar streams exclusively on Prime Video in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu across India, and in over 240 countries and territories worldwide.
For Prime Video, the numbers tell the real story: one weekend, one film, a global footprint, and a very loud signal that Indian original cinema is no longer just travelling well. It’s arriving.
