12:57 PM PST 1/19/2021
in
Patrick Brzeski
Thanks to a local content acquisition strategy and a partnership with the leading local telecommunications company, Disney + Hotstar has already reached 2.5 million subscribers in Indonesia, compared to just 850,000 for Netflix.
As streaming wars heat up around the world, Disney + Hotstar has already gained a considerable advantage over Netflix in Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world.
The streaming business is still at an early stage of development in Indonesia’s emerging market, with only 3 percent of the country’s 270 million population subscribing to SVOD services, according to a new report by leading regional consultancy Media Partners Asia (MPA) .
On January 16, Disney + Hotstar had 2.5 million subscribers in Indonesia, followed by local Southeast Asian streaming companies Viu and Vidio, with 1.5 million and 1.1 million subscribers, respectively – and with Netflix in fourth place, with only 850,000 subscribers.
The launch of Disney + Hotstar in September helped to boost the general use of SVOD in the country. Just before Disney’s local launch, Indonesia had about 3.4 million paying streaming subscribers, but on January 16, total subscribers rose 106 percent to approximately 7 million, shows the MPA survey.
“SVOD growth in Indonesia, Asia’s most populous market after China and India, is encouraging, but it still has a long way to go,” said MPA’s Anthony Dobson, noting that only 10 percent of Indonesian households they are currently streaming subscribers. But as “investment in local and Asian content accelerates,” there will be “significant room for future growth,” he added.
The Disney + Hotstar streaming offering in Indonesia includes films, series and factual content from Disney, Fox, Marvel, LucasFilm, Pixar and National Geographic and original Disney +, as well as more than 250 local Indonesian films. Disney got off to a strong start in the country thanks to an exclusive two-year mobile partnership with wireless network provider Telkomsel, which allows telco to bundle and market Disney + Hotstar with its mobile data plans. Average monthly subscription prices for Disney + Hotstar in Indonesia range from $ 0.80 to $ 1.40 for Telkomsel users or $ 1.10 to $ 2.60 for direct subscribers – significantly less than Netflix’s mobile plan , which runs $ 3.6 a month (other layers of Netflix cost between $ 8.10 and $ 12.50 in Indonesia).
“Disney’s [local] content acquisition strategy further encouraged its attractiveness to Indonesian consumers, “MPA researchers said. More than 20 percent of all Disney + Hotstar minutes consumed in Indonesia in December 2020 were delivered by locally purchased Indonesian content.
The Mandalorian it also proved to be a surprising breakthrough with the Indonesian public, despite the fact that the Star Wars franchise has historically underperformed in the country. The two seasons of the hit Disney + Original were among Indonesia’s most watched content on streaming platforms in the fourth quarter of 2020. “It looks like The Mandalorian may be acting as a ‘bridgehead’ attracting Indonesians to the Star Wars franchise in numbers not previously seen, “noted the MPA.