Shifting media consumption drives APAC telcos to expand OTT aggregation in 2026

Blog — 23 Oct, 2026

Shifting media consumption drives APAC telcos to expand OTT aggregation in 2026

Asia-Pacific telcos and pay TV operators are placing more bets on over-the-top (OTT) partnerships and proprietary streaming services in 2026, as consumers increasingly abandon traditional TV in favor of on-demand content accessed across multiple devices. S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan recorded partnerships increased by 5.8% year-over-year.

The Take

India's dominance in OTT partnerships and the persistence of telco-owned streaming services regionwide highlight how fragmented content spread across multiple platforms creates rational benefits for telecom operators.
With subscription promotions and direct carrier billing as the most popular types of agreement models, operators are leveraging their billing arrangements and customer touchpoints to maintain relevance in the telecoms value chain.
Beyond pay TV operator and telco partnerships, major OTT services in Asia-Pacific expand their subscriber bases through localized content offerings and affordability.

India has further solidified its position as the dominant market for pay TV and telco-OTT partnerships, as of October 2026. The growth reflects India's unique market dynamics, including its vast subscriber base, intense competition among operators, proliferation of regional language content platforms, and relatively low broadband penetration, which creates ongoing opportunities for bundled service offerings. The Indian market's abundance of OTT services — spanning global players like Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video, and Walt Disney Co.'s Disney+ alongside local platforms such as JioStar India Private Ltd.'s JioHotstar, ZEE5, SonyLIV, and Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd.'s ShemarooMe — has made OTT aggregation platforms an essential tool for operators pushing a “one-stop shop” for consumers. Meanwhile, Malaysia maintained its second-place position, while Australia and Indonesia both ranked third, demonstrating that collaborations have become a phenomenon essential to competitive positioning.

For the past years, we have seen how partnership strategies evolve — from a seamless set-top box integration to streamlining service bundles and subscription promotions, with most telcos and OTT providers now connecting through multi-layered arrangements. We identified subscription promotion as the most popular partnership model, as of October 2026. The strategy has signaled operators' intensified efforts, focusing on customer acquisition and retention through value-added content offerings that justify premium pricing tiers for fixed and wireless services.

Direct carrier billing is the second most common partnership model, allowing subscribers to pay for OTT subscriptions through consolidated bills with their broadband, pay TV, or mobile services. The payment simplification removes friction from the subscription process, particularly, and strengthens the telco's role as the primary customer relationship owner.

We also identified the following themes relating to consumers’ shifting media consumption behavior: (1) pay TV decline accelerates partnership urgency; (2) fiber broadband bundling drives connectivity growth; and (3) telco-owned streaming services persist despite challenges.

Alongside these emerging themes, major OTT platforms are seeing mixed subscriber trends across Asia-Pacific, with Netflix and Viu gaining traction through localized and Asian content, flexible pricing, and ad-supported offerings. In contrast, Disney+ has experienced significant subscriber losses, particularly in India, following the loss of IPL streaming rights and the merger of Disney+ Hotstar with JioCinema.

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Global Broadband & Pay TV is a regular feature from S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan.

This article was published by S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.