Southeast Asia’s Content Creators Hope To Create Their Own Korean Wave

Southeast Asia content makers have had it tough in recent times. Not only was the streamer money that briefly flooded the region reduced as global cuts bit, but they’ve seen demand for Japanese and Korean content reach new heights, while the rise of streaming in India has become a major narrative across the continent. Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video have all committed large funding pots to Asia, but the question is, how much can Southeast Asia specifically score? 

Those we have spoken to in the likes of Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia talk of the difficult economic climate and belt-tightening over production budgets. Streaming originals have been ditched and free-to-air networks are seeing TV advertising spend move to social media. 

Mark Francis, Chief Content and Strategy Officer at Indonesia’s largest streamer, Vidio, says multiple global streaming services spending big on productions was unlikely to last. “As it turns out, paying those kinds of budget for local series only makes sense economically to one global player, not four or five, and that one global player left is Netflix,” he adds. “That’s not to say the others won’t come back.”

Producers believe that with a downturn in commissions, the importance of bolstering development has become paramount, so that scripts and projects are ready to go during the next funding boom  —  whenever that comes.

Vidio has doubled down on domestic talent. Francis, a former Warner Bros. Discovery exec, points to Indonesia’s strengths in the action and horror genres, and cites talent like Timo Tjahjanto and Joko Anwar, who have achieved success globally. These genres are expensive to work in, which is why most stories from the space end up as films in Indonesia. Yet, Francis has found a way to build on the market’s appetite for Indonesian action series. “We acknowledge that action series do very well for us, but recognize the need to diversify and grow reach, so I looked at that and thought, ‘Let’s not go find an entirely new forest,’ but instead ask, ‘What’s the branch?’ We landed with action-comedy and action-romance as the two main threads we’re developing.”

Vidio once used to produce around 30 series in a year, the aim is now to make around 16 series annually, before eventually arriving at 18 to 22 series per year  —  perhaps another sign of the global realignment of television economics. Another challenge facing the streamer is the lack of a developed, pre-existing pay-television market in Indonesia. At one end, there is a booming, active box office, with around 100 films released per year. At the other end, there is an array of free-to-air television and ad-driven services, and the likes of YouTube. 

“There was no established habit of consumers paying a monthly subscription fee for TV and movie entertainment until streaming came along,” says Francis. “Hence we needed to figure out how to imbue our originals and overall content offering with a reason to pay for it and then to scale that, which requires real commitment.” Premium sports is one answer.

Korea Path

Korea remains a north star for many in the Asian content industry  —  a regional peer that has ascended to global acclaim through decades of investment, nurturing of independent voices and a wealth of onscreen and offscreen talent. The global K-pop and K-drama trends have only amplified its cultural significance.

For regional streamer Viu, Korean content has long been the bedrock of its business. Acquiring overseas streaming rights and providing high-quality subtitles, often within 12 hours after broadcast, is key. “From the very beginning until now, romantic comedies have worked the best for us, but in recent years, we also found that some other genres are doing great numbers,” says Marianne Lee, Viu’s Chief of Content Acquisition and Development. 

She cites original titles such as Reborn Rich and Taxi Driver Season 2 as non-romcoms that have become the platform’s top-performing titles in the past year. “What works for Viu are the feel-good kind of dramas  —  fast-paced, action-oriented and what I call ‘happy entertainment’,” she says. “It’s easy-watching and you feel good after you watch the drama.” 

Korean IP has also driven some of Viu’s recent original title successes in Southeast Asia. One of Viu’s top Southeast Asian original titles this year is What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim, a Philippines rom-com loosely based on the 2018 popular Korean drama of the same title. Viu teamed up with legacy Philippine media conglomerate ABS-CBN to produce the series. “It broke a lot of our viewership records and also traveled outside of the Philippines,” says Lee. “It is one of the best shows for us this year, because of the viewership and the big noise level that it has created.” The series, starring Kim Chiu and Paulo Avelino, was the third adaptation made in partnership between Viu and ABS-CBN, after The Broken Marriage Vow and Flower of Evil  —  the latter also a Korean drama IP.

Another answer to the Southeast Asia content conundrum recent ly has been for streamers to bring indie filmmakers with track records of success on the global festival circuit into the business of making episodic series and prestige TV. Drawing on their sharp, artistic voices and ability to deliver high-production values on mid-range budgets, top indie filmmakers such as Indonesia’s Kamila Andini and Thailand’s Pen-ek Ratanaruang have made shows like Cigarette Girl and 6ixtynin9 with Netflix, among others. 

Kriz Gazmen, Head of Star Cinema, the film arm of media conglomerate ABS-CBN, emphasizes the importance of the parallel development of both the television and film businesses. He sees series and partnerships with streamers as a way to develop ABS-CBN’s star system that can later cross over to its movie business.

Star Cinema has gone on a particularly successful box office run in the last two years, producing the Philippines’ all-time highest-grossing film, Rewind, as well as other hits like Un/Happy for You. This strategy is critical especially after ABS-CBN lost its broadcasting license in 2020 due to a Philippines’ National Telecommunications Commission order. 

“Before the pandemic, it was easier for us to build stars,” says Gazmen. “We want to keep building movie stars, so we have more in the lineup and to protect our future. Right now, that’s the work that we do with the television side. When they are tried and tested in television and digital shows, we help them graduate to doing full-length features that Filipino audiences will be willing to pay for. We’re not in the position to take risks and launch new faces each and every time.”

On November 13, Star Cinema will release Hello, Love, Again, the sequel to Hello, Love, Goodbye, which is the country’s second-highest grossing film of all time at the domestic box office. 

Singaporean film producer and Momo Film Co co-founder Tan Si En has assessed the state of the film and TV markets after the pandemic. “Films are moving faster,” she says. “In places such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, the box office has moved toward pre-pandemic levels. Besides the regular government funding that we know of, there are quite a few private financiers, individuals and production companies who are keen to explore some of these markets where the box office is recovering quite steadily.”

In fact, we hear that content execs, commissioners and producers alike are emphasizing the importance of film and television talent being developed together in the current economic climate, instead of cannibalizing each other. 

Vidio’s Francis points out how the Korean film and television industries found success together when the right economic opportunities came along in the streaming boom. “Would Korea be where it is today without a platform like Netflix plus Squid Game coming together? Would Squid Game even exist as a domestic commission? No, I don’t think so. To get to the stage of producing premium content in Korea, that talent pool had to grow and the competition had to exist domestically, with broadcasters KBS and SBS and the Korean film industry.” 

China

Perhaps part of the answer lies elsewhere in Asia. Lee highlights that Viu is making a concerted push into Chinese content and IP. “Chinese content can travel pretty well outside of Chinese-speaking territories,” she says, while acknowledging that Korean content is still the “content that most of our audience look for.”

Viu execs say Chinese-language content is demonstrating similar patterns to the platform’s Korean content. The dynamic between them is best highlighted in what Lee forecasts will be one of the biggest titles that Viu has exclusive international distribution for this year, titled Family by Choice. Released on October 9, the series is a Korean-language remake of an original Chinese drama titled Go Ahead. It will star Hwang In-youp, Jung Chae-yeon, Bae Hyun-sung, Choi Won-young and Choi Moo-sung.

Chinese-language content has also become another key avenue of investment for Netflix, with former screenwriter Maya Huang heading its efforts. Netflix’s Chinese-language content team operates largely in Taiwan and has partnered with government-backed agencies like the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) on programs and initiatives.

A New Way Forward

Jessica Kam-Engle, former head of Disney’s APAC content team and current Executive VP and Business Head of Southeast Asia at Banijay’s CreAsia Studio, says that another way forward may be taking Asian IP and formats and turning them into English-language shows. Her team is currently setting up original non-scripted and scripted shows in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and other parts of Asia. 

“The packaging of good Asian shows to be sold as global formats, however, has been disproportionately low, mainly because of a lack of expertise or focus on this area,” says Kam-Engle. “The rise of global streaming platforms gives a window for some outstanding international content to be viewed by audiences around the world, and that was a good start. However, while there is reach, penetration is still limited.”

“There is always a limit to how far local-language content can penetrate other markets where the audience doesn’t have the viewing habit to seek them out. To go from niche to mass, the next leap to popularizing local Asian IPs is in exploiting selected ones as formats to allow for English-language or multiple-language adaptations so that they can capture the hearts of the mainstream audience.”

Korea might be having an extended moment, but Southeast Asia is ready to step up when its time comes.