The multi-channel TV industry is more competitive than ever, with a major focus on growing business while navigating the new world of online media and digital content. This was the consensus during the CASBAA Con-vetion held in Hong Kong last November.
The CASBAA Convention 2009, the annual industry meeting organized by the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) in Hong Kong on November 3rd - 6th, drew more than 700 delegates, speakers and media from around the world.
The mantra that pay-TV is largely recession-proof has been put to the test this year, said Jack Wakshlag, Chief Research Officer of Turner Broadcasting in the US. "Cable networks are ex-periencing less negative impact than print and the traditional broadcast networks despite the current challenging environment. People are buying bigger TVs and High Definition (HD) only increases the audience’s interest in TV."
The convention was kicked off with a keynote address from John Tsang, Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong SAR Government at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Hong Kong. Tsang called Hong Kong the media hub of Asia and underlined that the government continued strong support of the mediaiIndustry. Tsang took time to underline the free trade relationship that had been set up between Hong Kong and China, which any foreign company doing business in Hong Kong could avail of. The "Closer Economic Partnership Agreement" (CEPA) between Hong Kong and China covers 42 service areas including TV and film production. Of the top ten films in China last year, six were co-produced with Hong Kong companies.
Hong Kong has reached one million households with IPTV or about 50% of the population. Digital Television broadcast reaches 80% of the Hong Kong territory with11 channels (2 HD) and 900,000 viewers.
CASBAA Chairman Marcel Fenez started the conference stating that new channels continue to launch across Asia. Just this year 26 million new subscribers were added, bringing the number of pay-TV subscribers in Asia to 326 million. China and India have spearheaded much of the growth, accounting for 90% of all Asian pay-TV subscribers in 2009.
Mark Patterson, CEO, Asia Pacific of GroupM said: "TV is making a comeback. One third of respondents to a recent survey said they were staying in more and a quarter were watching more TV . . . Our belief is that Asians still have a significant love affair with TV."
A key to sustaining growth will be the ability of the pay-TV business to take advantage of the deployment of new digital distribution platforms. According to Todd Miller, EVP, Networks, Asia Pacific of Sony Pictures Television: "Our core business isn’t changing in the foreseeable future and we have mobile extension, catch-up TV, online communities and tightening windows. All these go back to support our core business."
The three days of conference sessions, roundtables, networking breakfasts, lunches and cocktail parties reinforced the fact that the Indian market continues to be a tremendous growth story with an ever increasing channel choice and 105-million strong subscriber base.
And yet, by many measures the India market has yet to deliver on its full promise. Subhash Chandra, Chairman of Zee Entertainment Enterprises said broadcasters continue to contend with the problem of under-declaration and ever higher programming costs. Nevertheless Chandra said he expected a critical consolidation of the six DTH operators in India, which could transform the industry into profitability.
A debate on video services in China also attracted attention. According to David Rubio, COO of Cisco China, there are 300 million plus internet users and more than 70 per cent are online video consumers, the majority of whom are not fully satisfied with the online video experience. Rubio said China represented a "huge opportunity" for the right delivery systems.
Anita Huang, VP of Community & Marketing of Tudou said the online video market, which for the time being, at least, is less regulated than traditional broadcast TV, offered the best opportunity for legitimate content deals. A major roadblock, she admitted, was piracy.
Huang added that although Tudou has undertaken anti-piracy initiatives, it is up to the content owners to be more proactive in terms of protecting their content online. "Work with us," she said, insisting that Tudou is open to revenue sharing deals on legitimate content.
Sports TV was also a hot topic covering the thorny issue of escalating sports rights for channels, platforms and consumers.
"Sports fans demand the best available content and that is what we deliver. We also favour the market and we are in favour of laissez faire on rights," said Russell Wolff, EVP & MD of ESPN International.
"While there is some competition for sports rights in China the reality is that only CCTV can afford the huge fees for major events such as the World Cup soccer and the Olympics," said Ma Guoli, CEO & MD of Infront Sports & Media.
During a special address, Makato Harada, Director-General, International Planning and Broadcasting Department of NHK said their network is aggressively moving into the digital age and will complete its digital transition by July 2011. "NHK now has 100% of production in HD and we are working on generating super HD. We don’t know if the effort of digitalization and HD will lead directly to an increase in revenue. But if we do not make the effort to expand with new services, we could lose our leadership position, especially with younger viewers," added Harada.
Also addressing digital issues, Bernhard Glock, President of the World Federation of Advertisers, called for a concerted effort on the part of advertisers and agencies to evolve the development of advertising for the digital space.
Glock claimed that the basic principles behind effective advertising – solid consumer insight, and engaging content had not changed. The ’30-second spot’ will continue to be an important part of every advertiser’s messaging. However, he added that "the way people experience it will be different".
On the negative side, piracy continues to grow in Asia, but at a slower pace this last year due to the digitalization of television and stepped up regulatory efforts. CASBAA’s annual pay-TV piracy survey of 15 Asia Pacific markets conducted in association with Standard Chartered Bank reflects the regional growth but also generating an updated estimate of US$1.94 billion in annual revenue losses to the industry.
All told, the CASBAA convention affirmed the continued growth in Asia-Pacific market and the many opportunities for the satellite industry in the region.
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Tom van der Heyden is a Hong Kong based satellite communications industry pioneer and Recruiting Consultant with MRI China. He can be reached at phone +852 3656-5694 or e-mail : thomas.vanderheyden@mrihk.com
