Premium VOD Users Watch Only 8% of Content

Premium video-on-demand users in Southeast Asia dedicate a mere 8% of their digital lives to watching premium content. The remaining time is predominantly spent on social media, messaging, gaming, and short-form video platforms. Adding television screens to mobile viewing still results in an average of only one hour per day spent on premium content.

Consumers exhibit a grazing behavior, consuming a mix of content across social, messaging, and video platforms throughout the day. This pattern holds true for all time slots, from morning to night, with no single category dominating any specific time. Evenings, traditionally considered primetime for premium video, show no significant increase in viewership, remaining flat at 7-8% across all dayparts.

The phenomenon of dual-screening is also prevalent, with users spending about one-third of their premium content viewing time on a second screen. This behavior is characterized as additive rather than zero-sum, with users engaging with both screens simultaneously.

Attention is now segmented into 'fast' and 'slow' categories. Fast attention involves quick consumption driven by algorithms, while slow attention requires committed, longer viewing sessions where the consumer is in control. Audiences and brands are being built in the fast attention layer, with engagement then funneled to premium platforms.

Microdrama is emerging as a format that effectively bridges these two attention types, offering premium stories in a fast-paced, TikTok-style delivery. This format collapses the traditional funnel, capturing attention and monetizing it directly before guiding engaged users towards longer-form content.

In terms of content performance, local stories are outperforming Korean dramas in markets like Indonesia and Thailand, which have strong content industries. Conversely, Korean content and imports still hold a larger market share in Malaysia and the Philippines. Thai content is currently traveling the widest across Southeast Asia, with crime & thriller, sci-fi & fantasy, and drama being popular genres. Indonesian content's travelability is primarily driven by horror, with some exceptions for genres like drama in Malaysia due to language and cultural proximity.