Hong Kong

Hong Kong multichannel homes continue to grow with over 85% of TV homes accessing non-terrestrial channels. Three platforms offer multichannel TV, with PCCW’s now TV claiming 1,088,000 subscribers, Wharf’s i-Cable claiming 1,106,000 subs and HK Broadband with 195,000 (Feb 2012).

Hong Kong will enter a new era when additional free-to-air channel licenses will be awarded very soon, breaking the old terrestrial duopoly. The government had received three proposals from PCCW, i-Cable and City Telecom, owner of Hong Kong Broadband, potentially paving the way to wider audiences.

CSM currently run the Hong Kong ratings panel, and report that 26% of viewing in IPTV/Cable/Satellite homes was to multichannel TV. In pay TV homes the figure was 32% share of viewing. From 2012, Nielsen will take over the Hong Kong people meter service.

Ipsos Media Atlas 2011 reports that 40% of multichannel homes earn HK$40,000+ compared to only 34% of the population and that 58% of the population has a multichannel service.

Among Hong Kong elites, as measured by Ipsos (previously Synovate) PAX, 68% of high income earners accessed multichannel TV in 2011 (Q3 2011).

Total advertising expenditure in Hong Kong amounted to over HK$36 billion in 2011, a growth of 16% as measured by admanGo. TV is still the most popular medium. TV held nearly 35%of media spend in 2011 compared to 30.78% for newspapers and 14.03%for magazines, 11.99% for outdoor, 3.82% for radio and 4.42%t for interactive.

Pay TV ad revenue increased to 42% share of total TV revenue in 2011, compared to just 23% in 2007. Among the top 10 categories, jewellery, watches and luxury products recorded 45% growth compared to 2010, ranking in 8^th place. Banking & investment services still ranks as top spending category, with a 13% YOY growth on 2010 with cosmetics & skincare coming second (22% YOY growth). (Please note that all the adspend figures by admanGo have taken into consideration the discount factor based on an assumption of 60% off rate card rate).