APOS 2026 Takeaways: IP, Sport, AI Define Asia’s New Content Era
Asia’s entertainment industry is entering a new stage of maturity. Growth remains important, but executives at this week’s APOS conference in Bali were focused on building sustainable ecosystems, scalable IP and deeper audience engagement. Here are eight themes that defined the conversation.
IP Has Become the New Currency
Whether it was Netflix flagging a dormant fandom waking up around Japanese live-action and Chinese-language content, or MD Entertainment pursuing global co-productions, one theme appeared repeatedly: owning IP matters more than ever. The focus has shifted toward creating franchises capable of traveling across platforms, markets and formats. “I always consider myself and my team as portfolio managers,” said Minyoung Kim, Netflix VP of content for APAC (ex-India), pointing to successful investments in Korea, Japan and India. During the “Indonesia At Scale” session, MD Entertainment founder and CEO Manoj Punjabi said global streaming services have become important gateways for Indonesian stories to reach international audiences, while future growth will increasingly depend on cross-border IP development.
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AI Is Shifting From Experimentation to Infrastructure
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Vivek Couto, CEO of Media Partners Asia, which produces the conference, set the tone in his opening address, framing AI as having moved from conference talking point to operational reality. JioHotstar illustrated the point concretely: chief architect Vijay Seshadri said the platform has deployed a conversational voice discovery feature built with OpenAI, with more than 60% of users now choosing voice over text for content discovery. ReelShort described AI as a future production workflow operating alongside traditional live-action. A dedicated day-two panel on GenAI across the content pipeline, featuring JioStar’s Stephan Bugaj and FBRC.ai’s Todd Terrazas, was followed by sessions on AI-native filmmaking, AI-powered localization and AI video generation — an agenda depth that would have been unthinkable at a previous edition of the summit.
Fandom Is Now a Business Strategy – and Sport Is Its Clearest Proof
Crunchyroll’s expansion into Taiwan and South Korea underscored how anime fandom is increasingly viewed as an economic engine rather than a marketing outcome. Sport emerged at APOS as the category where that logic is playing out most visibly. Ishan Chatterjee, CEO of JioStar Sports, said the platform is now regularly delivering over 1 billion viewers per IPL cricket tournament season – 1.2 billion in 2026 – and set a global digital concurrency record of 72.5 million during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Cricket 2026 Final. Chatterjee described live sport as one of the few formats still capable of aggregating audiences at that scale, and pointed to JioStar’s decade-long investment in kabaddi – now drawing over 300 million viewers a season – as evidence that cricket’s top-of-funnel audience can be redirected to build fandom in other sports from scratch. On commerce, he cited JioStar’s integration with food delivery platform Swiggy as part of a broader push to combine content consumption with transactional experiences. Couto, speaking to Variety ahead of the summit, pointed to cricket’s shifting geography as further evidence of sport’s expanding reach: in the most recent ICC cycle, meaningful demand emerged for the first time from Japan, Indonesia and Thailand. “How do you monetize that?” Couto said. “How do you tap the fandom? And how do you develop new revenue streams around merchandising, ticketing, working with brands and advertisers — rather than just being dependent on these rights cycles.”
Vertical Entertainment Is Moving Into the Mainstream – and the Numbers Back It Up
From ReelShort’s Southeast Asia expansion to FlareFlow’s efforts to build vertical reality franchises, industry leaders increasingly described vertical storytelling as a long-term content category rather than a temporary trend. The category now has financial weight to match the conviction: Media Partners Asia estimates that DramaBox and ReelShort, the two profitable leaders in the microdrama space, are generating combined annualized revenue of close to $1.5 billion, with most users based in the U.S. ReelShort announced a new partnership with Philippine telecommunications company Globe at the summit, following a deal with Thailand’s AIS two months prior. At the “Building the Vertical Stack in Asia” session, COL Group International general manager and chief marketing officer Timothy Oh said: “Today we’re already seeing the development of vertical documentaries, vertical IPs and vertical franchises.” RisingJoy CEO and co-founder Cassandra Yang separately announced the launch of RJOY, a direct-to-consumer microdrama streaming service launching via TikTok Minis in the U.S. and Japan with 20 originals planned for the second half of 2026.
Connected TV Is Reshaping the Home Screen Across Asia
A theme that cut across multiple sessions was the accelerating shift of digital viewing to the television set. YouTube India country managing director Gunjan Soni told APOS that the platform now holds the highest reach among media properties on connected TV screens in India, per Comscore data, and described YouTube as “India’s prime-time screen.” Creator-led cricket content alone generated 190 billion views on the platform in 2025, with 66% of that consumption time spent on non-live content such as analysis and behind-the-scenes programming. JioHotstar’s Bharath Ram cited nearly 100 million connected televisions in India as context for the platform’s accelerating CTV push, while Soni said YouTube now reaches more than 75 million Indian adults aged 18 and above on connected TV screens. The data collectively pointed toward a market where mobile-first assumptions are being revised at speed.
Governments Are Showing Up to Court Streamers
A newer dynamic emerged visibly at this year’s summit: public officials are actively competing for production investment. Jakarta Vice Governor Rano Karno appeared at APOS to announce a six-point initiative positioning Indonesia’s capital as a major production hub, anchored by a tax rebate program under which qualifying national film productions can receive up to a 50% tax refund on costs incurred in the city, set to formally launch June 26. He separately held discussions with senior Netflix executives on expanding the streamer’s output in Jakarta. The moment was notable for what it signaled: that governments across the region increasingly see content production infrastructure as an economic development priority worth showing up to a media summit to pitch.
The Creator Economy Has Become a Macroeconomic Force
Soni framed India’s creator ecosystem not as a marketing channel but as a structural economic contributor. “India represents the blueprint for how a digital creator economy achieves institutional scale,” she said. YouTube reported that 200 million logged-in users searched for shopping-related content on YouTube India in 2025, driving a 250% year-on-year increase in shopping watch time. The content-to-commerce pipeline — creators driving direct purchasing behavior — emerged across multiple sessions as one of the most commercially concrete developments in Asia’s digital economy.
Asia Is No Longer Just a Market – It’s Becoming the Industry’s Growth Engine
Netflix, marking its 10th anniversary of operating in Asia Pacific, released figures to coincide with APOS showing APAC content now accounts for more than half of all titles appearing in its global non-English Top 10 rankings each week, up from around 30% in 2021, with viewing hours of APAC content on the platform having quadrupled since 2019. Prime Video, Disney and regional players all emphasized the increasing international appeal of Asian stories. Couto, in his opening address, pushed back on the language of disruption or reset, preferring a more precise term for what APOS captured. “It’s not actually being reset,” he said. “It’s actually being redefined. The whole industry is being redefined in terms of the possibilities, in terms of new revenue streams, and frankly, in terms of the cost structures that one has to adopt.”
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Badenoch blasts 'moaning' female Labour MPs over Burnham jobs 'quota'
Kemi Badenoch has told Labour women to earn a job in Andy Burnham's Cabinet instead of demanding they are handed jobs because of their gender.
The Tory leader lashed out today amid reports that female MPs are demanding the de-facto new prime minister introduce a 50:50 gender split 'quota' in his government.
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister also complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts.
But in a scathing article in the Times today Mrs Badenoch told them to 'stop moaning' and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'.
'There are many, many reasons why you shouldn't have any Milibands in the cabinet,' she said.
'But complaining that the boys haven't given them the right jobs or that the boys are taking all the jobs, just shows that Labour's women still don't get it.'
The idea of quotas was also attacked by Baroness Jacqui Smith, Labour's Skills Minister.
Asked by Times Radio if Mr Burnham should reserve jobs for women, she said: 'No, I think what Andy Burnham should be doing is building the very best team around him to change this country.'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband (above, right, in 2010) is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts
But Mrs Badenoch told them to pipe down and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party and seen by the BBC has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs after he succeeds Sir Keir Starmer.
'We are asking you to demonstrate this change from day one and address the toxicity and misogyny within our own party and government,' it said.
Labour has never had a female leader, while the Conservatives have had three, and Mrs Badenoch urged the government to follow its meritocratic example.
'If you run a meritocracy, then you do not have to worry about jobs for the boys,' she wrote.
'Every woman who is a Conservative MP, every woman who has ever won the leadership, has had to fight to get where she is.
'By contrast, Labour women are demanding guarantees from Burnham. But the truth is he doesn't have to give any guarantees.
'If none of Labour's women are prepared to get their hands dirty and challenge him for the leadership, their demands are toothless.'
'In fact, it's quite revealing that the women's parliamentary Labour Party has written to Burnham asking him to commit himself to at least 50 per cent female ministers.
'This has nothing to do with meritocracy. It is yet more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country.'
Venezuela Fury and Noah Price subsidising their life by livestreaming
Venezuela Fury and her husband Noah Price look to be making their own way in the world by raking it in from their lucrative social media accounts.
The influencer daughter of Tyson and Paris Fury, 16, has become an internet sensation after tying the knot with her husband Noah, 19, earlier this year.
Since getting married and moving in together the couple have been earning thousands of pounds a month, livestreaming their life as newlyweds in their static caravan in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
And fans can't get enough of their regular life updates on TikTok and Kick, which have proved to be very profitable for the pair.
They look to be supporting themselves after Noah denied that he was given £5million by Venezuela's family as a wedding gift.
Despite his wife's huge family wealth, an estimated combined £160 million, Noah recently told his Kick followers that he 'pays for everything' for the couple.
Making light of the claims about Venezuela's millionaire financial status, Noah said: 'I actually pay for everything unfortunately. You'd expect the millionaire to pay for it wouldn't you.'
Venezuela Fury and Noah Price are earning thousands livestreaming their caravan life - after her new groom insisted he pays all the bills and denied he had £5m handout from her dad
The influencer daughter of Tyson and Paris Fury , 16, has become an internet sensation after tying the knot with her husband Noah, 19, earlier this year
Venezuela then asked their fans: 'Do you think I am a millionaire?'
Noah joked: 'She isn't a secret millionaire guys', before she broke into song and sang: 'But I live like a millionaire!'
But it seems according to estimated calculations from their social media work, Noah and Venezuela can more than afford to support themselves.
Noah has been livestreaming on platforms such as Kick and TikTok, where viewers can send paid gifts or donations.
He was previously encouraging viewers to send gifts on his honeymoon during livestreams, suggesting this is one revenue stream.
Both Noah and Venezuela have built substantial followings on Instagram and TikTok. They can potentially earn money through sponsored posts, brand collaborations, affiliate links and creator payouts.
Kick allows its creators to take home 95 per cent of the £4.99 subscription cost that fans pay.
Streamers keep 100 per cent of direct tips and donations, minus minor standard payment processing fees.
It is unclear how many subscribers Noah currently has because this information is hidden, but he does have 7,200 followers which is publicly viewable.
An industry insider has suggested Noah is making around £400 per video on TikTok, while Venezuela is likely to make £2,000 due to her following count of 1.3 million.
An industry insider has suggested Noah is making around £400 per video on TikTok, while Venezuela is likely to make £2,000 due to her following count of 1.3 million
In one video on their honeymoon, Noah asked his followers if they'd give them some more gifts now that they were married.
In a TikTok live viewed by 20,000 he said: 'Keep liking our videos people, keep sending gifts.'
After saying thank you to several of his followers he joked they should stick around on the livestream and 'watch Venezuela punch me in the mouth'.
The other half of the honeymooning couple said: 'I am, honestly!'
Noah previously confirmed that the pair don't share their finances after they were asked whether they have a shared bank account.
'She earns her money, I earn mine,' said Noah, as Venezuela joked: 'Yeah, what you gonna do about it.'
Noah went on to debunk the rumour that Tyson gave him £5million when he tied the knot with his daughter as he insisted: 'No Tyson did not give me £5million'.
Meanwhile Venezuela is being eyed up by executives for a fly on the wall TV series.
Noah went on to debunk the rumour that Tyson gave him £5million when he tied the knot with his daughter as he insisted: 'No Tyson did not give me £5million'
Boasting 1.3 million TikTok followers, Venezuela is already entertaining fans with her honest musings and candid moments, from cooking to kitting out her and Noah's static caravan home.
And following the success of the Netflix series At Home With The Furys, it is no wonder bosses are wanting to draw on the Fury popularity.
A TV insider said: 'The couple are not A-list celebrities but everyone has become obsessed with their love story.
'People are genuinely intrigued by them. Whether it’s the fact they have married so young, Venezuela’s famous family or their gypsy lifestyle, they have the ‘X factor'.
'Several TV executives think a proper fly-on-the-wall series following their lives as newlyweds in the gypsy community would be fascinating,' they told The Sun.
It is thought Netflix would be likely to produce the series due to their already established relationship with the Furys.
Venezuela's representatives told The Daily Mail: 'We have many offers on the table regarding Venezuela which we are discussing.'
