Many operators have identified becoming full service providers of TV, voice and data traffic as their new strategy in an era of convergence. Performance in this space will be critical to the success of existing players in the television broadcast industry.
The 2008 Pay TV Operators' Survey, conducted by Fusion Consulting and ContentAsia, fleshes out industry players' views and concerns on where they and the industry are heading.
Carried out from January to March this year, the survey covered 38 Asia-Pacific cable and pay television operators which represent 120 million subscribers.
"Traditional television broadcasters in mature markets, such as TVB or Mediacorp, must
decide how best to compete with new content and delivery formats," said Pete Read, a director at Fusion Consulting in Singapore.
"Broadcasters have been buying the rights to broadcast their shows via their own websites in order to retain their audiences," Read added. "This also gives them the opportunity to show related material online, broaden their viewership base and boost revenues by offering alternative advertising platforms."
Janine Stein, ContentAsia's editorial director, said pay TV operators are well aware of the need to balance excitement about new technologies with the situation on the ground.
"The reality is that multichannel audiences and advertising revenues in many places are not growing as quickly as they need to to cover unfettered and unfocused expansion into all things digital," Stein said.
Top five opportunities
Industry players in the Asia Pacific study ranked their top five opportunities as technology advancements, industry development, subscriber base growth, interactive content delivery and new services.
Technological advances that led to new formats like digital TV, mobile TV, high-definition TV and IPTV will attract new viewers and help boost revenues. Operators investing into these technologies see an advantage of differentiating their offering away from traditional TV broadcasting.
Developments in deregulation as well as the consolidation of multiple services allows for great opportunities across different platforms. Mobile, fixed line, internet and TV are in the offering and allow consumers to benefit from bundling offers and a variety of promotions.
Operators see growing interest in their services, especially from rural areas in emerging
markets. In India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia for instance, there are ample opportunities for providers as technology becomes more widely available and affordable.
24x7 feeds and next-generation set top boxes could help increase revenues from pay TV
services. Innovative devices, such as the Hubstation from Singapore's Starhub, are prime examples of whatadvanced providers can expect. Smart applications will include digital recording, interactive menus and convenient access to terrestrial television as well as pay channels from the same device.
Further pickup of video-on-demand and digitalization will allow for an enhanced user-
experience. On-demand TV services, while not groundbreaking to consumers, are becoming part of the portfolio of advanced pay TV operators and are expected to be a significant source of additional revenue.
Top five threats
Those polled listed the top five threats as the arrival of new players, competition by existing operators, internet and content substitution, unauthorized viewing and saturation in mature markets.