Taiwan and Japan are awash with domestic streaming services offering everything from free-TV catch-up to a growing slate of originals. Malena Amzah looks at who’s who in the two markets that top the list of local streamers by volume among 18 countries in Asia.

Asia had at least 134* home-grown dedicated domestic streaming services in the first half of this year, led by Taiwan, with 18 platforms (excluding regional/global streamers although they are increasingly adding Chinese content) and Japan, which has 15 platforms (excluding Amazon Prime Video, which is focused almost entirely on Japan and India, and Netflix). Including regional/global players, we counted 24 platforms in Taiwan and 20 in Japan.

Japan has three platforms on the list of the 15 biggest streaming earners in Asia Pacific identified by Media Partners Asia (MPA) in 2019. The three Japanese platforms are Hulu Japan, dTV and Niconico. Hulu Japan places 9th, followed by dTV in 10th spot and Niconico at 12th.

Combined, the 15 take 70% of total online video revenues in the region this year. MPA says Japan is the largest online video country by revenue (ex China). In total, Asia Pacific advertising and subscription revenue this year (ex China) is forecast to be US$11 billion. By 2024, this is expected to more than double to US$23 billion.

Both global, regional and local streaming services are backing original production in Asia, some more than others but together driving up output, content spend and opportunity.

Global streaming wars are already well under way in Japan – an Amazon stronghold – with Netflix upping its executive firepower on the ground and pushing forward with its anime and other originals. Apple TV+ has included Japan in its 1 November roll out, but hasn‘t disclosed any content localisation. Disney+ is expected to roll out in Japan in 2020.

Netflix‘s 2019 originals slate out of Japan includes the eight-part The Naked Director (premiered Aug 2019, directed by Masaharu Take), about pornography pioneer Toru Muranishi; The Forest of Love (premieres Oct 2019, produced by Hiroshi Muto), about the merciless Jo Murata; and Followers (2020, directed by Mika Ninagawa), about a group of Tokyo-ites crossing path through social media. Netflix is also backing Japanese original, Alice in Borderland (2020), based on Haro Aso’s sci-fi manga about a life-or-death game directed by Shinsuke Sato (Kingdom).

Netflix’s 2019 commissions also include kids animated comedy Dino Girl Gauko from Japanese creator/showrunner Akira Shigino, produced by Hitoshi Mogi (Crayon Shin-chan, Line Town). In addition, Netflix has inked partnerships with three local companies – Anima, Sublimation and David Production – for titles such as Altered Carbon: Resleeved from Anima and Dragon’s Dogma from Sublimation.

Amazon headliners out of Japan include the third season of the local adaptation of Warner Bros’ The Bachelor, released in September 2019. 31-year-old entrepreneur, Shinya Tomonaga, plays the bachelor in the new series. Amazon is also adapting The Bachelorette for Japan. The show goes into production this month.

Excluding global streamers, Japan‘s 2019 online video revenue leader – Hulu Japan – has invested in a few, high-end co-productions. Hulu Japan, which launched in Japan in 2011 and was acquired by commercial free-TV powerhouse Nippon TV in early 2014, celebrated its eighth anniversary in September, with the clock ticking on the premiere of its second co-production with HBO Asia – international thriller, The Head, about a group of scientists trapped in Antarctica with a killer among them. The six-part mini-series series, shooting in Europe for a 2020 global release, is led by Spain’s The Mediapro Studio. The cast includes Japanese idol/singer/actor, Yamashita Tomohisa (aka Yamapi). The Head followed Hulu Japan‘s first international co-production, Miss Sherlock (2018), an eight-episode contemporary female-led series set in Tokyo based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic.

In Taiwan regional/global services are ramping up Mandarin programming, adding to a growing line-up of regional co-productions. There‘s also new money coming from Taiwan-based regional streaming platform GagaOOlala‘s Gol Studios, which backs LGBTQ projects.

Upcoming co-productions include The Haunted Heart, from WarnerMedia and local production house Phenomena; and the 40-episodeAll Is Well, a co-pro between Singapore‘s Mediacorp and Taiwan‘sEightgeman; the show airs on two Mediacorp free TV broadcastchannels, on free-TV channel Taiwan Television (TTV) in Taiwan, andstreams on Mediacorp‘s Toggle. WarnerMedia has not yet said where The Haunted Heart will air/stream, but it‘s difficult to think there won‘t be a regional/global angle.

Recent series also include The World Between Us (March 2019), a 10-episode co-pro between Taiwan’s Public Television Service (PTS) Foundation and HBO Asia. PTS operates catch-up service, PTS Plus. HBO Asia operates stand-alone streaming platform HBO Go, which is not yet available in Taiwan but streams the series across the rest of the region.

Another streamer with an originals pipeline in Taiwan is Line TV, owned by Korea‘s Naver and managed by Taiwan‘s Choco Media. Naver acquired Choco‘s streaming service, Choco TV, in November 2018. Line TV in Taiwan streams 11 web series produced by Choco Media. 2019 originals include season three of anthology LGBT series, HIStory; the first two seasons streamed in 2017/2018.

Taiwanese pay-TV operator Kbro, which operates seven-year old on-demand service, Super MOD, is also backing original production, including 20-episode drama, A Taiwanese Tale of Two Cities (2018). The series was produced with Netflix and Taiwanese filmmaker Nelson Yeh’s Good Image along with a grant from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture. The story follows two women – a Chinese medicine practitioner in Taipei and a Taiwanese-American programmer in San Francisco – who swap homes. The series aired on Netflix and free-TV channels FTV and PTS first, and streamed on Taiwan Mobile’s seven-year-old free platform, MyVideo, with a one-hour delay.

Netflix‘s first fully funded Mandarin original, Nowhere Man, premieres on 31 October 2019. The series, written/directed by Taiwan’s DJ Chen, is about a death row inmate who plans a jailbreak to save his son only to find himself in an even more dangerous situation. Nowhere Man is followed by Mandarin/Taiwanese action comedy, Triad Princess, from Singapore-listed production house mm2 and Taiwan’s Goodfilms Workshop. The Neal Wu-directed story, which premieres on 6 December, is about the daughter of a mafia boss who defies her father and becomes a bodyguard. Netflix’s third Chinese original, Ghost Bride, stars Taiwan’s Wu Kang Jen, although the show was driven out of Malaysia by Zainir Aminullah’s Revolution Media (formerly Ideate Media); Ghost Bride releases in January 2020. Netflix’s originals run alongside ramped up acquisitions activities, including glove puppetry series Pili Fantasy: War of Dragons and Dear Studio’s comedy Dear Ex.

What’s most likely to happen next? Maybe platform consolidation as the battle rages for a share of the region’s (ex-China) US$23 billion forecast ad/subscription revenues by 2024. Outside of China, Japan will lead with Taiwan in sixth place, according to MPA forecasts. On the production front, our prediction is that demand for original programming will increase as competition rises, even if there are fewer players.

Find the list here.

Published in ContentAsia Issue Five 2019, 3 October 2019