Between December 4-6, the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) closed off 2024 with three days of high-level meetings and conferences, covering Piracy, Policy, the annual OTT Summit alongside the advertising Upfront Showcases from leading streamers and publishers and the Annual General Meeting. The conferences brought together over 300 international and regional industry executives.
Piracy Over The Top hosted by General Manager of the Coalition Against Piracy (CAP), Matthew Cheetham on 4thDecember saw a series of lively discussions with BBC Studios, beIN Sports, Meta, Malaysia’s Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (MDTCL), NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Premier League, and TikTok, revolving around content protection, piracy trends, enforcement solutions and exclusive insights into what to expect in 2025. Key takeaways from these discussions highlighted the urgency of deeper collaboration between government, industry and intermediaries to clamp down on bad actors.
The annual AVIA Policy Roundtable held behind closed doors and under Chatham House Rules saw a very high number of regulators from all around the region engaged in conversation with industry about the challenges and opportunities both face.
The AVIA OTT Summit on 5th December this year turned to the world of advertising highlighting transformative trends and actionable insights for advertisers and media owners across the region. Kicking off the first session, Dhivya T, Lead Analyst – Head of Content & Platform Insights, Media Partners Asia (MPA), emphasized the growing shift to Connected TV (CTV) as traditional TV viewership declines, driven by its personalized, measurable appeal. CTV penetration is surging across APAC, with Japan and Korea expected to reach 80-85% active household penetration, and emerging markets like Thailand and Indonesia exceeding 50%. While user-generated content (UGC) dominates mobile platforms like YouTube and TikTok in Southeast Asia, premium streaming options like SVOD and Freemium retain significant scale. The Premium AVOD market in APAC (excluding China) is forecasted to grow at a 25% CAGR to over USD 8 billion over the next five years, with BVOD and SVOD as key drivers. Dhivya concluded by highlighting the growing opportunities in the Premium AVOD category and the undeniable dominance of YouTube and TikTok in mobile engagement.
Raj Parekh, VP & Head of Digital Sales, Mediacorp, emphasized the role of innovative and engaging ad formats in driving user engagement, a sentiment echoed by Kanika Manglik, Vice President-Investment Strategy at GroupM. Speaking on the trends to expect, Jason Barnes, Chief Revenue Officer APAC, PubMatic, highlighted ongoing market consolidation and the evolution of Connected TV (CTV) into a full-funnel solution. Kanika further noted the growing consumer preference for watching content on larger screens, underscoring the shift toward more immersive viewing experiences. Both, Anannya Paliwal, Regional Director – Digital Solutions, Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific, and Sunil Naryani, President Partnerships & Product Solutions, dentsu APAC noted that the difference in production techniques between UGC and professional content may be narrowing, but the category and nature of content is likely to remain very distinct.
AI remains as one of the key trends to expect in 2025 for Jonathan Smith, SVP Product Data & Tech, GroupM and Anson Tan, Country Head – Singapore, Viu. Jonathan emphasized how generative AI is lowering barriers for smaller companies to create impactful advertisements while Anson highlighted the importance of collaboration between brands and agencies. Both Anson and Jonathan encourage advertisers to embrace experimentation and collaboration with media partners. In the other panel, Megan Reichelt, Country Manager, South East Asia, Hong Kong & Taiwan, Integral Ad Science, also foresaw a lot of close collaboration between tech parties and publishers to give confidence to advertisers while Christine Lau, Director of Yield Management, Viu, was confident that shoppable ads and deeper e-commerce integrations is expected to gain traction.
James Wildbore, SVP & GM Global Ad Sales, BBC Studios, underscored the importance of maintaining the trust of audiences through BBC Verify. As the industry is evolving with more consumers using smart TV, Jolene Sng, Head of Agency Development, Samsung Ads shared that around half of all smart TV shipments will be within APAC by 2027 and advertisers should understand their consumers to ensure effective ads on various platforms. The preference for large screen viewing experiences and the benefit of getting traditional TV advertising with a modern and cost-effective approach was once again mentioned by James Ross, CEO, Lightning International, and Bhuvnesh Kanwar, Vice President, Revenue and Head of FAST, KC Global Media. The push for standardized audience measurement metrics remains critical in the discussions around addressing the challenges in programmatic and measurements for Erin Williams, Sales Director, APAC, CNN and Yann Courqueux, VP Entertainment, StarHub Ltd.
In the closing discussion with AVIA’s CEO, Louis Boswell, on expanding content overseas, Ed Love, Head of Samsung TV Plus ANZ & South East Asia, Samsung Ads, highlighted how FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) removes cost barriers, enabling efficient cross-market distribution. Having launched with 20 channels in the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand they are looking to aggressively grow this number and partnerships are key to this. Sharing insights into their plans over the next 12 months, Ed stressed that the focus will be on “local, local, and local”, leveraging FAST’s lower market entry barriers to create a compelling linear offering.
Running parallel to the OTT Summit, the Upfront Showcase spotlighted cutting-edge content and advertising opportunities from leading streaming and broadcasting publishers BBC Studios, iQIYI, Samsung Ads, StarHub and Viu. Attendees were treated to an exciting half day of insight and innovation.
At the Annual General Meeting AVIA were pleased to announce the appointment of two newly elected Board members: Debra Richards, Director – APAC Content, Studio & Production Affairs – ANZ Public Policy, Netflix and Tim Harris, Vice President Transactional Sales and Emerging Media Asia Pacific, Sony Pictures Entertainment. AVIA also wishes to express its thanks to Yoly Crisanto, Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer, Globe, and Nick O’Donnell, former APAC Head of Public Policy of Netflix, for their contributions during their tenure.
Also at the AGM, AVIA paid tribute to Matt McDonald, Senior VP and GM at Sony Pictures Television. He was presented with an award for distinguished service to the Asian video industry after many years of leading initiatives from ensuring channel frequencies were not affected when 5G services were rolled out to helping manage continuity of services throughout the pandemic, and especially in the first wave of lockdowns.
Thanks to NBCUniversal and Netflix for their support for the Policy Roundtable. The OTT Summit was proudly sponsored by Gold Sponsors Irdeto, Publica and TV5MONDE; and Silver Sponsors INVIDI, Magnite, PubMatic and Shemaroo
Visit our media gallery for photos from event.
About the Asia Video Industry Association
The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) is the trade association for the video industry and ecosystem in Asia Pacific. It serves to make the video industry stronger and healthier through promoting the common interests of its members. AVIA is the interlocutor for the industry with governments across the region, leads the fight against video piracy through its Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) and provides insight into the video industry through reports and conferences aimed to support a vibrant video industry.
For media enquiries and additional background information, please contact:
Charmaine Kwan | Tan Teck Wee
charmaine@avia.org | teckwee@avia.org
www.avia.org | www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia|X: @AsiaVideoIA