Streaming Giants Bet on Asian IP at APOS 2026
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Netflix's APAC content VP Minyoung Kim framed her team as "portfolio managers," citing successful investments in Korea, Japan, and India as the foundation of the platform's regional strategy while noting rising cross-border appetite for international franchises
- Prime Video's Gaurav Gandhi said the platform tailors by market, expanding into live sports in Japan where many users come from traditional TV backgrounds while focusing on balancing scale with long-term sustainability in India
- Disney's Tony Zameczkowski highlighted strategic partnerships as a growth engine, citing Disney's collaboration with Hulu Japan and ESPN's distribution through Disney+ in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore
- Warner Bros. Discovery's James Gibbons pointed to Harry Potter as the model for fan-community-driven value across multiple platforms, citing Japan and China as markets where fandom drives commercial returns
- Asked which categories will travel globally, executives converged on Japanese live-action adaptations (Kim and Zameczkowski), Thai content (Kim), drama (Gandhi), and vertical-format storytelling (Gibbons)
Why it matters: The four largest global streaming platforms publicly aligned at APOS 2026 on treating Asian IP as a content origination hub rather than a regional afterthought, with named bets on Japanese live-action, Thai content, and pan-Asian drama. For Asian creators and production ecosystems, this means direct-to-platform commissioning budgets are now competing for the same local slate, raising the stakes for whoever secures the next breakout franchise first.
