Pay-TV Competition Becomes Fiercer
JAKARTA: Competition in the pay-TV segment is predicted to intensify amidst a remaining market potential of up to 15 million households and the arrival of IPTV in Indonesia.
Skynindo Director of Business Development, Widodo Mardijono, said that the pay-TV market which currently has been penetrated is approximately 3.3 million households, with more than 12 million other households still untapped.
“Satellite television still dominates the market due to its extensive coverage and relatively lower price,” he shared with Bisnis yesterday.
According to him, the market presence of IPTV (Internet television), LTE (long-term evolution) and WiMax which provide television streaming services is still very much in its infancy, as the telecommunication network in Indonesia is not fully IP-based.
This factor, explained Widodo, will influence its degree of penetration and limit it to the larger cities.
Skynindo is a pay-TV operator with access to 2 C-band transponders (72 MHz) on satellite Palapa D, which is owned by Indosat and obtained its operational permit last mid-year.
Widodo estimates that each month will usher in approx.1,000 customers, be they completely new subscribers or acquired from other operators, and does not discount the possibility of attracting customers from neighbouring countries through collaboration with distributors.
“Our new marketing program will include the Skynindo box which is equipped with 30 free-to-air programs, and the opening of all 85 channels for free during weekends or national holidays to our subscribers,” he said.
According to him, there are approximately 4 million households in the whole of Indonesia that own satellite dishes, which proved that media entertainment in the form of television is very much in demand, especially in certain districts which cannot capture television broadcasts.
Besides Skynindo, other satellite pay-TV operators include Aora TV, Indovision, and Telkomvision.
In a separate interview, Aora TV Director of Marketing and Sales Guntur S. Siboro revealed that his side is not too worried about competition because the untapped market is still large.
“We do not have to fight for customers. With television owner numbers potentially at more than 40 milllion households, and the current tapped market at only 2.5%, we are optimistic of creating new market share,” he said.
Currently, Aora TV’s subscribers number about 100,000. Guntur is optimistic that Aora can continue to add new customers in all districts.
Unlike the already highly-saturated telecommunications, the pay-TV market, he added, is far from being saturated, even in Jakarta alone.
Conversely, Indosat M2 rates the growth of the Indonesian pay-TV market as almost stagnant due to competition in the form of increasingly interesting terrestrial TV content.
“The local and free to air TV content has become rather impressive, thus creating little incentive for consumers to subscribe to satellite or cable TV,” opined Indosat M2 GM of Business Development Hermanudin.
He said this could be seen from the total number of pay-TV subscribers in Indonesia which have been at levels of 1 million, although pay-TV has been present in Indonesia since the late 90’s.
According to Elvizar KH, President Director of PT Indonesia Telemedia, a subsidiary of Telkom which provides pay-TV services, the total number of Indonesian pay-TV consumers is only approx. 1 million.
“Compare this to Vietnam which has a much smaller population, but has achieved subscription numbers of about 2 million,” he said.
Elvizar feels that there are several factors which reduce the attractiveness of pay-TV in Indonesia, including cheaper tariffs and relatively weak support from local content providers. (FAA)
To read the original Bahasa Indonesia article, please visit http://www.bisnis.com/articles/wuiiiih-persaingan-televisi-berbayar-makin-sengit