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. <‾xml:namespace prefix = o ns = 'urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office' />
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 <‾xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = 'urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags' />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.