Quick stats: Is OTT the go-to platform for Malaysians watching Chinese entertainment content?

Majority of Chinese entertainment (C-entertainment) shows’ audiences utilise OTT platforms more than any other medium in Malaysia. According to Nielsen’s study conducted with iQIYI, OTT reaches 95% of C-entertainment audiences while traditional TV channels only reached 80%. OTT streaming of C-entertainment content was more prevalent than catching Chinese shows live on traditional TV channels.

While the majority (76%) of respondents watched C-entertainment on both OTT and traditional TV, one in five respondents were watching C-entertainment content exclusively through OTT platforms. Due to the convenience of watching content on-the-go, half of the respondents watched C-entertainment content through mobile devices minimally several times a week, with 28% of respondents watching on mobile daily.

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There is also a growing positive sentiment towards C-entertainment from non-Chinese viewers. The survey also reflected that while 49% of C-entertainment content viewers in Malaysia were Chinese, the remaining 49% of the audience constituted an equally sizable Malay and Bumiputera demographic.

In the same study, 95% of the Malaysian audience for C-entertainment content reportedly see themselves spending more time in the coming year streaming C-entertainment than they do now. This indicates continued interest for such content amongst the Malaysian audience. The stydy stated that factors that will fuel the foreseeable rise in OTT C-entertainment viewership include title variety, social connectivity, value-for-money improvement, and ad relevance.

Dinesh Ratnam, country manager of iQIYI Malaysia for the Singapore and Brunei markets said that they noticed an increase in the consumption of C-content among viewers, particularly among non-Chinese speaking audiences. “Audiences have become more language agnostic in their consumption of entertainment and OTT has enabled them to be able to enjoy these stories through the use of subtitles.,” he added.

In October last year, Indian subscription streaming service Aha has launched in Malaysia. The streaming platform offers Telugu and Tamil language content and plans to invest in local content as well as boost the Tamil content industry in Malaysia, Bernama reported. This will be done by using local talents and production houses.

Meanwhile, last year, global platforms such as Netflix also stepped up their game in the Chinese entertainment space by introducing a slate of Chinese-language films and drama series from Hong Kong and Taiwan, after it has been prohibited from entering the mainland Chinese entertainment market.

The slate includes Taiwanese fantasy series “Agent From Above”, which was produced by Singapore’s mm2 Entertainment and Taiwan’s Good Films Production; Taiwanese LGBTQ+ show “The Nipple Talk,” which was produced by Sequoia Entertainment and directed by Lincoln Lai, is expected to stream by early 2023.

The streaming platform has also acquired Hong Kong’s action film “Warriors of Future”, which revolves around the future of extreme environmental deterioration and follows a group of mecha warriors in their fight against lethal alien creatures. It will be available to stream on Netflix from 2 December.

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