Hong Kong, November 17, 2008 – The CASBAA Convention 2008, the annual industry meeting organized by the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) in Hong Kong on October 28th – 31st, attracted more than 1,700 delegates, speakers and sponsors from around the world, looking to the future of Asia’s consistently booming pay-TV market, even as negative atmospherics swamped global media trends.
The show was strongly supported by industry heavyweights including Darren Childs, MD, BBC Worldwide Channels; Ben Pyne, President Global Distribution, Disney Media Networks; Dr. Abe Peled, Chairman & CEO, NDS; Barry Diller, Chairman & CEO, InterActiveCorp; Bill Roedy, Chairman & CEO, MTV Networks International; Phil Lines, Director, Media Operations and International Broadcasting, English Premier League; John Tsang, Financial Secretary, Hong Kong SAR and Nripendra Misra, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
A consistent theme of the Convention 2008 was affirmation of the strong consumer base from which the Asian industry is working in late 2008. “We now have a customer-base of 300 million pay-TV connections across Asia Pacific creating a minimum annual turnover of more than US$20 billion year,” said Simon Twiston Davies, CEO of CASBAA. “While the Asian TV ad spend may stumble in the coming months, we see few signs of a slow down in subscription revenues.”
During the opening segment of the high-powered CASBAA meeting, a panel of pay-TV platform operators (or “carriers”) from Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Indonesia were estimated to represent US$780 million per year in annual collections from subscribers. “These are the vital revenues ultimately passed up the value chain to content creators, the channels, satellite operators and the providers of hardware and services,” said Twiston Davies.
Nevertheless, said Terry Clontz, the CEO of StarHub in Singapore: “The rising cost of content meant that, at least for StarHub, profit has not risen commensurately with revenue. We’re doing it more, but enjoying it less.”
Others noted a fragmenting market as new platforms and distribution lines have blurred the pay-TV business model.
Ben Pyne, President Global Distribution at Disney Media Networks, meanwhile, assured the audience that new platforms enhance revenues, rather than undermines them – and they were all about the future: according to Pyne’s numbers, the average age of online viewers is 31, while the average TV viewer is in his mid-40s.
Pyne also spoke of new partnerships narrowing the gap between release times in the US and other markets. Case in point: TVB and Disney had partnered on a deal that lets viewers in Hong Kong stream content only 12 hours after its local Hong Kong release. He mentioned a similar deal with SingTel, enabling VOD subscribers to order TV series within 24 hours of its US release.
For a sense of the highwire act the media industry may yet deliver in 2009, a rapt audience heard from media mogul extraordinaire Barry Diller. The Chairman and CEO of InterActiveCorp, predicts a decade of “creative destruction” as the old media order gives way to the new.
As distribution shifts more to the internet, Diller said during one of the Convention’s “In Conversation” sessions, the old system of “distribution chokeholds” and “toll bridges” exploited in a world of content scarcity would disappear. “If you define industry by the logos in this room, I think there is going to be a lot of chaos as scarcity is replaced by absolute plenty in terms of how you spend your leisure time,” he said. “This ability to essentially press a button and publish to the world anything [including movies] is going to change everything.”
During the second day of the Convention, the schedule ushered in sessions on satellite services, interactivity and investment (with optimistic takes on how the sky wasn’t falling) plus another “In Conversation” piece, this time with Abe Peled, Chairman and CEO of NDS, who spoke of new developments in the security sphere and the critical role access technologies have in protecting and enhancing pay-TV operations.
Peled described the growth market for a company that engaged in the business of digital pay TV. “We’re changing the way people are entertained and informed,” he told the BBC’s Saranjit Leyl. “But only 200 million out of 725 million pay-TV households enjoy digital – and only 20 million enjoy HD.” But more to the point, he said only 30 million had digital video recorders at the moment, and nearly half of them 14.5 million of those were provided by NDS.
Peled continued: “That’s why I think we’re in a fundamentally great market. And the costs of technology are coming down sufficiently to make the technology affordable in emerging markets — in low APRU markets like India, and Asia in general and eastern Europe – where we see a lot of growth coming.
Earlier, in a session with Phil Lines, the English Premier League’s Director of Media Operations and International Broadcasting, discussion inevitably also touched on signal theft: “I’m very worried [about piracy] going into China and anywhere the internet has grown quickly,” Lines said, explaining that lax regulation made it too easy for rogues to crack encryption codes and launch distribution businesses.
He contrasted that with the situation in Hong Kong. “Our local licensee is an IPTV operator and that helps eliminate piracy,” Line said. “IPTV can’t roll out fast enough – PCCW is pirate proof and Hong Kong is the most profitable market for us in the world.”
Lines said China was still resistant to pay-TV. “It will be very interesting to see what happens when we sell our rights there next year.”
Staying with the regulation of Asia’s mega markets, in a centre stage interview, the chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Nripendra Misra, reiterated that his country’s priorities were to move ahead with convergence and complete digital transformation by 2010. Another priority, he said, was ensuring “constructive” competition in the market, a worrying qualifier that seemed to leave lots of wiggle room for interpretation.
Asked about concerns about WiMAX deployments in C-band (and how they threatened to disrupt TV services), the even-tempered TRAI chairman offered kudos to CASBAA for keeping the issue front and centre: “What you’re doing here today is going to help reduce this high risk perception. The WiMAX Forum does its job [and] you at CASBAA are doing your job,” he said.
| Significant figures about the CASBAA Convention 2008 |
|---|
|
###
About CASBAA – www.casbaa.com
The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) is an industry-based advocacy group dedicated to the promotion of multi-channel TV via cable, satellite, broadband and wireless video networks across the Asia-Pacific. CASBAA represents 135 + member organisations in the pay-TV business, which in turn serve more than three billion people. Patron members include Al Jazeera International, Asia Broadcast Satellite, AsiaSat, ASTRO, Australia Network, Bloomberg Television, Chunghwa Telecom, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, Disney-ABC International Television, Genesis Networks, Irdeto, ITV Global Entertainment Ltd., HBO Asia, Intelsat, Macquarie Group, Qualcomm MediaFLO Technologies, Motorola, MTV Networks Asia Pacific, NBC Universal Networks Asia Pacific, NDS, Nokia, now TV, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SES NEW SKIES, SingTel, Sony Pictures Television International, STAR Group, Tiger Gate Entertainment, Tom Group, TrueVisions, Turner International Asia Pacific and VOOM HD Networks Asia. To view the full list of CASBAA members, please visit here.
For enquiries, please contact:
CASBAA
Helen Shek / Carmen Mak
Tel: +852 2854 9943
Fax: +852 2854 9530
Email: pr@casbaa.com