“The world has changed in the last two years, and the entertainment industry has changed enormously,” says Peggie Liu, associate director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the organizer of the Hong Kong Filmart. As is by now overwhelmingly familiar to the industry, arguably the biggest beneficiaries of the changes brought on by the pandemic are international, regional and local streaming services across the world. In 2020, the subscription video sector in the Asia Pacific region saw its revenue soar 34 percent. In the key growth region of Southeast Asia, more than 10 million new subscribers signed up for SVOD services in the second quarter of 2021 alone, according to research from regional consultancy Media Partners Asia.
So it is only fitting that the upcoming Hong Kong Filmart, to be held March 14-17, will focus on OTT and streaming platforms as one of its central highlights. “This is a market trend that we have noticed,” Liu tells The Hollywood Reporter. “That is why we have reached out to more OTT platforms and television networks, because many networks have their own streaming platforms nowadays. This will be one of our directions going forward. Many major international streamers have also been participating in Filmart as buyers, but they don’t like to draw attention to themselves.” OTT and streaming will also be key topics of EntertainmentPlus, Filmart’s rebranded seminar series.
One of the television networks exhibiting at Filmart is Thailand’s Mono Streaming. Thailand has experienced significant growth in SVOD in 2021. The country accounted for 75 percent of new subscriptions in Southeast Asia for Disney+ in the third quarter of 2021, and overall SVOD subscriptions in Thailand grew by 16 percent from the previous quarter to 11.3 million during the period. It is an increasingly competitive market with local and overseas players fighting for a piece of the pie.
“We compete with major international streamers…