Could Myanmar’s relative invisibility on the international – or even regional – video entertainment stage be coming to an end? Multiple signs of life since January 2026 indicate that the answer might just be maybe. 

Follow the crumbs: a global shout-out to shareholders from French giant Canal+ in March; a greenlight for the first domestic multi-season premium period drama with franchise hopes and regional potential, announced in April; the inclusion of Myanmar in a three-series Netflix deal with Singapore’s Mediacorp; and Myanmar’s debut at Hong Kong Filmart, also in March. These followed HBO Max’s rollout in Myanmar in October 2025 – itself not enough to signal anything, but combined with other signs? Maybe.

For the regional/international industry, Canal+, which operates the Canal+ Myanmar platform, is the country’s happiest entertainment story. 

Reporting its annual results for 2025, the global operator called Myanmar’s performance in 2025 “exceptional”, despite challenges related to the earthquake in March. Both the subscriber base and revenues almost doubled. Canal+ attributed this to an enhanced content line-up, led by exclusive Premier League rights, which it said attracted “tens of thousands” of new subscribers.  

Myanmar’s first multi-season period drama – Canal+ Myanmar’s “Beneath The Glass Sky” – releases at the end of 2026, creating the first fictional universe of its kind and kicking off French-led platform Canal+ Myanmar’s long-term franchise plans. The second 24-episode season is slated for June 2027, extending the story to different parts of the sprawling fictional kingdom of Mahaw Thein Kha, a world of warring provinces, palace intrigue and elaborate power structures. 

The announcement in capital city Yangon showed one thing: domestic glamour and creativity against a political and economic landscape viewed by the international production and distribution community as tough at best. 

Myanmar’s filmmakers continue to be much more visible internationally than their TV counterparts, thanks both to a plethora of festivals and funds that cast a wide geographic net and organisations that support Burmese artists in exile. 

The film industry is plainly split into two: filmmakers in exile whose work isn’t seen in Myanmar if it doesn’t comply with strict military junta guidelines, and  domestic output that sticks to the rules but is accused of burying reality.   

Burmese titles are a staple on the international festival circuit. These include Min Min Hein’s feature-length documentary “Untitled” – one of 14 projects selected for the 2025 Busan Int’l Film Festival’s Asian Cinema Fund. Director The Maw Naing’s  “MA – Cry of Silence”, inspired by the 2012 women’s strikes, did the rounds in 2024/5. Sein Lyan Tun’s “The Bamboo Family” and Zaw Bo Bo Hein’s “The Wedding Gift” were on the Singapore Int’l Film Festival grant list in 2024. And those are but a few...

Domestic production and exhibition is another story. Reliable box office data is thin, and general opinion is that a combo of Covid and the coup in 2021 ended a few years of rising film output and optimism. 

In numbers
Population ....................................................................... 51.38 million
Percentage of population by age group
0-14 .............................................................................    25.2%
15-64 ..........................................................................    66.9%
65+ ...............................................................................    7.9%
Households ...................................................................... 7.78 million
TV households .................................................................. 3.59 million
Mobile phone/Landline/Fixed-line telephone .................    6.45 million
Internet households (including mobile  connection .......    4.44 million

Source: Department of Population – 2024 Myanmar Population and Housing Census

Published in ContentAsia's The Big List 2026: Myanmar directory