A study from Horowitz Research has revealed that Asian TV content viewers continue to lead the market in US streaming TV with just over three-quarters of the community being streamers, compared with 65% of TV content viewers overall.

The analyst believes that the combination of tech-savviness, the demand for international content that was generally unavailable or expensive to subscribe in the US, and the programming and marketing challenges the pay-TV industry faced in serving a culturally and linguistically diverse consumer segment, has created what it calls ‘the perfect storm’ for Asians to become the leading-edge streamers that they are today.
Horowitz noted that online streaming among US Asians streaming content was not a new development, and much of the practice was driven by the demand for culturally resonant content from their countries of origin. The report showed that in-language and international content play an important role in the viewing ecosystem of most Asian TV content viewers, with almost three-fifths of US Asians watching at least some in-language content weekly. Among viewers, 59% said they access Asian-language content via streaming frequently compared with just 31% who access it via traditional cable/satellite/antenna.
Compared with other communities, US Asians were revealed to tend to over-index on being connected, internet access and own smartphones while under-indexing for pay-TV. Indeed, only 71% of Asians reported having a traditional MVPD, substantially lower than the total market at 82%. Notably, among those who do subscribe to pay-TV, 38% of Asians also pay for an in-language or international package, highest among Indians (38%) and Filipinos (36%), and lowest among Chinese (19%).
Looking at who is about to cash in on these trends, Horowitz observed that Netflix has already become a main provider of Asian content, with 39% of in-language viewers saying they access Asian-language content through the service. It added that skinny TV services like Sling TV and DIRECTV NOW are specifically targeting Asian audiences with packages of in-language content.
“The Asian market has always been a challenge for the pay TV industry," commented Adriana Waterston, SVP of insights for Horowitz Research. “We have always known that there is a strong market for in-language and culturally relevant content, but with the Asian population hailing from so many countries and with so many linguistic and cultural nuances, scalability has been a major hurdle. The efficiency and personalisation of streaming solves many of the inherent challenges of serving this audience. Now the question will be which players will rise to the occasion.”