LONDON—As streaming platforms look to international markets for growth, a new analysis from Omdia indicates that Korean and Spanish series are playing a central role in these efforts, with shows in those languages emerging as the top non-English language content on Netflix.
Omdia's analysis “'What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report' for 1H 2024 found that Korean shows now account for 8.71% of all non-English language content consumption on the platform, with Spanish-language content following closely at 7.11%. This popularity represents an astonishing 8.19 billion viewing hours for Korean content and 6.69 billion hours for shows in Spanish, with 3.28 billion of those viewing hours coming from Spain.
Spanish-language viewing hours amounted to more than double the combined viewing hours of French, German and Portuguese content altogether. These figures underscore the growing global appetite for non-English original content, the researchers said.
"Netflix has played a significant role in expanding the appetite for diverse content," noted Maria Rua Aguete, senior director of media and entertainment at Omdia. "In particular, Spanish content has gained worldwide popularity and is now associated with quality and engaging storytelling. Thanks to this shift and shows like “Money Heist” (“La Casa de Papel”) and more recently the film “Society of the Snow” (“La Sociedad de la Nieve”), Spanish content is now reaching international audiences on an exceptional scale. It is successful globally and not only in Spanish-speaking countries.”
Additionally, Omdia's analysis found titles from Spain were the most popular Spanish-language content on Netflix, accounting for 49% of the platform's Spanish-language offerings. Following Spain was Colombia, which contributes 19%, and Mexico, which provides 18% of Spanish-language content.
Among the top 10 most popular Spanish-language titles on Netflix, seven were from Spain, while three were Colombian:
- Berlin: Season 1 // Berlín: Temporada 1
- Society of the Snow // La sociedad de la nieve
- The Asunta Case: Limited Series // El caso Asunta: Miniserie
- Raising Voices: Season 1 // Ni una más: Temporada 1
- Pablo Escobar, el patrón del mal: Season 1 (Colombia)
- Wrong Side of the Tracks: Season 3 // Entrevías: Temporada 3
- Iron Reign: Season 1 // Mano de hierro: Temporada 1
- Pasión de Gavilanes: Season 1 (Colombia)
- Money Heist: Part 1 // La casa de papel: Parte 1
- Café con aroma de mujer: Season 1 (Colombia)
These insights highlight the global appetite for non-English content and how streaming platforms like Netflix are expanding their international content catalogs to align with audience preferences. Spain and South Korea have emerged as key content hubs, with Netflix investing heavily in original productions from both these countries, the study concluded.
