Trust and transparency with content providers, advertisers and end users are the keys to the development of China’s online video market, executives said at the CASBAA Online Video forum held in China last week.
Johannes Larcher SVP for Hulu said these factors are important for the US-based online platform, which has more than 250 content partners and 600 advertising partners.
While traditional television reigns supreme, a projected 300 million Chinese viewers watching video online by the end of 2011.
This means that it is vitally important to identify the opportunities and hurdles that will affect business development in the future, CASBAA chairman Marcel Fenez said.
“Since China is one of the biggest and fastest growing markets in Asia, and indeed the world, it makes sense to keep focusing our attention on developments that will affect the broadcasting industry there,” the executive said.
The executive further cited copyright issues and the lack of standards where some online video services are using licensed content while others are not.
“Chinese online video sites are becoming increasingly sophisticated in terms of how they acquire both international and domestic licensed programs, as well as commission relevant content themselves,” according to CMM-I managing director Anke Redl.
Further, the executives said while broadcasters are increasingly turning to multi-platform methods of content delivery, infrastructure in terms of bandwidth speed is another concern raised.
While this situation is improving, there is still uncertainty as to what sort of collaboration, if any, there will be with telcos in the future, the executives said.