Hollywood content retained its relevance in Asia, albeit in a dramatically altered environment, APAC bosses of U.S. studios Sony Pictures Entertainment and NBCUniversal told APOS delegates in Bali this afternoon.

"We just have to work a lot harder and a lot smarter to find the right homes for that content around the region," said Adam Herr, SVP of Distribution – APAC, Sony Pictures Entertainment. 

At the same time, "there have never been more screens available for people... and there have never been more ways to consume content," Herr said. 

Talking about language customisation in India and Southeast Asian markets, including Thailand, Herr said this had    deepened engagement.

"We have realised it's worth the money and the time... It's an investment in the future," Herr said, also highlighting Sony Pictures Entertainment's investment in digital channels such as YouTube and TikTok. 

"We have decided to invest more in localising more of the content, dubbing our movies and making sure that every movie that we deliver through a service to a pay-one window is available, not just in English, obviously, not just in Hindi, but also available in Tamil and Telugu. And we're finding that the engagement is much higher on that because we're providing audiences with content that they can watch and understand more easily," Herr said.

"The reasons that local stories are resonating is because they're local stories, and you can understand them, and you can relate to them. So we realise it's worth the money and the time to invest in that. And I think we're all invested in making sure that Hollywood content continues to break through the noise. So it's an investment in the future, to make sure that Hollywood is really healthy. So we do that in India, and we do that in some of the Southeast Asian markets as well, and we are fine like Thailand, that makes a difference," he added. 

Chris Taylor, NBCUniversal's MD APAC, television distribution, networks and DTC, said the increase in competition and reduction in the available content to sell ("because obviously some people are pursuing consumer ambitions")  had created "a really good environment for us to do strong deals across the board".

"You can't deny that there has been a huge proliferation of local content in the Asian region, and that's had an impact... but there is still very strong demand for U.S. and U.K, content," Taylor said.

"We have to continue to think laterally... doing something differently," Taylor added, highlighting the Studio Universal branded zones making their way around Asia.