KUALA LUMPUR: Over-the-top (OTT) platforms have reached 95 per cent of Chinese entertainment (C-entertainment) audiences in Malaysia, higher than the 80 per cent reached across traditional TV channels, according to a Nielsen survey.
iQIYI. an Asian streaming platform, said the survey on "Chinese Entertainment Viewers in Malaysia" had shown that OTT streaming of C-entertainment content was more prevalent than catching Chinese shows live on traditional TV channels.
While the majority (76 per cent) of respondents watched C-entertainment on both OTT and traditional TV, one in five respondents were watching C-entertainment content exclusively through OTT platforms.
"With the convenience of watching content anytime and anywhere, half of the respondents watched C-entertainment content through mobile devices minimally several times a week, with 28 per cent of respondents watching on mobile daily," it said.
iQIYI believes that there is also a growing positive sentiment towards C-entertainment from non-Chinese viewers.
iQIYI Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei country manager Dinesh Ratnam said the company had noticed an increase in the consumption of C-content among viewers, particularly among non-Chinese speaking audiences.
Ratnam said audiences had become more language agnostic in their consumption of entertainment and OTT had enabled them to be able to enjoy these stories through the use of subtitles.
"We believe it is evident that C-entertainment is here to stay and will continue to garner interest in the near future. iQIYI's approach has always been hyper focused on celebrating Asian content that is authentic and differentiated.
"We will continue our effort in delivering premium Asian entertainment to our viewers, in line with our commitment to being the home of beloved Asian entertainment," he said.
The Nielsen survey reflected that while 49 per cent of C-entertainment content viewers in Malaysia were Chinese, an equally sizeable 49 per cent were Malay or Bumiputera while other ethnicities made up the remaining audience.
Among the C-entertainment genres available, C-movies and C-dramas were the most popular among Malaysian audiences with 79 per cent of respondents watching C-movies and 71 per cent watching C-dramas.
Although less popular, C-animation attracted higher viewership amongst younger males and dads.
In the same study, 95 per cent of the Malaysian audience for C-entertainment content saw themselves spending more time in the coming year streaming C-entertainment than they do now.
This indicated continued interest for such content amongst the Malaysian audience.
Factors that will fuel the foreseeable rise in OTT C-entertainment viewership are a wide title variety, social connectivity, value-for-money improvement and ad relevance.