India consumes the most OTT (Over-the-top) videos, followed by Thailand and Philippines in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, content delivery network services provider Akamai Technologies said on Tuesday.

"In India, viewers watched 12.3 hours of online content in a week, while in Japan, viewers watched the least content online per week at 6.2 hours," a study by Akamai Technologies, commissioned through research firm Kadence International, said.

The study was commissioned through research firm Kadence International represents patterns of nearly 850 million internet users.

Indian (44 per cent) and Thai (45 per cent) audiences showed similar behaviours of watching online content via smartphone, while 50 per cent of Japanese viewers preferred accessing OTT services via non-mobile devices. However, in Japan, viewers watched the least content online per week at 6.2 hours.

The survey brought the importance of superior-quality video to the fore. Seventy per cent of Indian viewers said that the video and audio quality is of utmost importance to them, followed by fast start-up time (56 per cent).

"It is critical for the OTT service providers across the region to understand user preferences as viewers increasingly shift to a culture of consuming content on any device, any time, and anywhere," Vincent Low, Chief Media Strategist and Head of Media Product Marketing APJ at Akamai Technologies, said in a statement.

"What now becomes the differentiator are those micro-moments when they access their preferred content that could either be instances of delight for the user from good overall quality of experience or frustration, which can potentially lead to churn," Low added.

The study also found an increased demand for local OTT players across markets (Hotstar in India, Hooq in Indonesia and Niconico in Japan, among others).

The study found further that 73% viewers in Indonesia are unlikely to pay for subscription-based content and in Japan 70% of the content watched is local.