The entertainment economy is operating against a backdrop where “the most valuable companies in entertainment are not entertainment companies,” resulting in APOS’s most future-facing edition to date, Vivek Couto, executive director of Media Partners Asia, tells ScreenMDM Talks in our latest podcast.
“We’re a media technology and sports conference, but we have to look at these changes,” Couto tells ScreenMDM Talks about the upcoming summit, running from June 16 to 18 in Bali. “When you look at the leaderboard of our conference, and you process it, the three biggest companies in the room are actually AI companies with technology and platforms. They’re BytePlus, they’re Google, and they’re Kling AI.”
Across the schedule, the team at MPA set out to curate an agenda that will ask “a lot of provocative questions and address topics on where entertainment is headed next,” Couto says. “It’s about the future rather than being too navel-gazing on where we are at and what was the macro drive of the last six months. It’s focused on what the aspirational goals are going forward.”
You can watch the podcast with Vivek on YouTube or Spotify, or continue reading below for more on the key themes of AI, vertical content, engagement, social video, and sports that will dominate the conversation at APOS 2026.
Couto describes the current market dynamics using a Dickensian framework: it is simultaneously the “best of times and the worst of times.” The best thanks to the wealth of newer opportunities: the creator economy, retail media and commerce, AI, connected TV, and microdrama. The worst because of macroeconomic issues, driven by the war, which are “having a huge impact on visibility for advertisers,” he says. “We’re starting to see a softness in Q2. But the longer the war goes on, the more dangerous it starts becoming, particularly as you start going to Q3 and Q4, it starts hurting consumer sentiment expenditure.”
At its core, the APOS framework addresses the issue of audience engagement. “Our focus is on where entertainment goes next and what we call the new geography of attention,” Couto explains, characterizing APOS as the central hub for the broader screen economy.
“Whether it is trying to monetize on mobile or on the big screen or on theatrical or even outdoor surfaces, and all of that. But we recognized that the language of attention and the focus of attention and capital have started to shift from people making content to people who aggregate content and eyeballs. And that’s the issue. Everyone’s trying to figure out how to participate in the creator economy and make money from it. How do I sell a sports rights package to YouTube? How do I partner with e-commerce platforms? How do I partner with digital platforms?”
While future-facing, the traditional ecosystem remains a pillar of the event. In markets where television remains a dominant medium, significant monetization opportunities persist through linear broadcast, FAST (accelerating in India, Couto says), and “even through the last vestiges of pay TV distribution in some of these markets.”
For IP owners, tech and AI are providing opportunities to unlock new revenue streams, Couto notes, but “you’re still having to be very lean and optimized on how you look at content. And that’s not, by the way, just about investing in content. That’s also about engineering, technology, production operations, and production tools.” AI is not about replacing human creativity, he says, “it’s really about how you use these tools to become more efficient on the production side, as well as across other areas of the business. You’ll hear at APOS from a few platforms that have used AI to dramatically increase the personalization, relevance, and interactivity on their streaming platform.”
Several of Asia’s biggest platforms will be in attendance, with APOS always carving out parts of the schedule to highlight “strong, scalable local players in these markets,” among them India’s JioStar, Japan’s U-NEXT, Australia’s Nine, and Korea’s TVING. Successful collaborations will also be featured, including TVING’s partnership with HBO Max.
The summit’s speaker roster balances deep local market analysis across Southeast Asia, India, and Japan with macro perspectives from global executives. Key sessions and highlights include Rahul Purini, who leads Crunchyroll, discussing fandom and niche appeal. The AI strand features Thomas Tull, ex-Legendary, and a panel with actor, director, and producer Andy Serkis; writer and director Josh Nelson Youssef; and Google’s Jon Zepp.
The vertical strand at APOS will feature both regional and global voices, including Joey Jia, founder and CEO of Crazy Maple Studio and ReelShort. It will crucially spotlight monetization models in the emerging ecosystem.
With a keynote slate that also includes Simon Robinson, president of global experiences and worldwide studio operations for Warner Bros. Discovery, immersive entertainment will also be explored at APOS. “It can’t just be about streaming and content licensing,” Couto says. “You’ve got these other revenue pools that are really interesting.”
The assembled speakers, about 50 of them, also include Indonesian content creators, executives from BytePlus, and investors weighing in on where that segment is headed (microdrama and AI tools); plus a session on the role of U.S. content in Asia today (still a key subscriber acquisition tool, Couto says).
You can see the entire APOS agenda here. Use SCREENMDM_APOS10 for 10% off your delegate pass.
