Broadcasting

December 18, 2006
CASBAA Convention 2006 offers brand value

HONG KONG -- The four-day CASBAA Convention 2006, tagged 'From Bandwidth to Brandwidth', drew more than 1,500 attendees from over 30 countries. Held from 24 to 27 October, the CASBAA Convention is the most important annual gathering in the region for the pay-TV industry, providing debate on major issues such as the monetisation of newly-available communications bandwidth, the way to attract new investment to communications infrastructure and the provision of video value to customers.

Keynote speaker Michael Fries, president and CEO of US media conglomerate, Liberty Global, stressed that the future of pay-TV revenues and delivery is ‘all about capacity' and listed 'Seven Basic Truths' for the pay-TV industry:

• The pay-TV market is not moving as fast among consumers as many media professionals believe;

• Technology remains ahead of consumer demand;

• As service providers push network speed as a selling point, applications must catch up;

• Managed services will prevail with a "flight to quality";

• Interoperability will become the equivalent of McDonalds’ 'secret sauce';

• The power of bundling remains, allowing customers to navigate in an increasingly complex market;

• 'Consumers need help' and no one should be left behind in the rush in to new technology.

On investment, CASBAA delegates heard from Gabby Lopez, the chairman and CEO of ABS-CBN Broadcasting, the largest broadcaster in the Philippines, Remi Hinduja, the chairman of Indian communications conglomerate Hinduja TMT and John Kwun, the managing director of the Carlyle Group, which recently invested US $1.5 billion in Taiwan cable operator EMC.

"It’s simple," said Kwun. "We invest in telecom and media companies because of the steadiness of the cash flow, the defensibility of the market positions that the companies are in and the exciting growth prospects with new technologies and services that are being introduced."

In the conference program, numerous experts gave their insights on the delivery of content via mobile TV. While debate throughout the Convention flowed back and forth on the viability of mobile video, Casey Harwood, senior vice president, Digital Media at Turner Europe, was firmly bullish: "There is a demand for small screen TV - people just don't know it yet," he said.

The other dominant technology topic was IPTV, which nevertheless, remains a video delivery platform that has yet to mature in many markets. During the session titled 'IPTV: no more than a bandwidth beast?', the panel agreed that technical issues such as the bandwidth required for optimum quality video delivery via the Internet will be resolved, triggering a projected ten-fold increase in subscribers in the next three years.

The survey of pay-TV piracy in the Asia Pacific co-presented by CASBAA and Standard Chartered Bank confirmed that signal theft remains a huge problem. The study estimated that pay-TV piracy cost the industry US $1.13 billion this year, compared to US $1.06 billion in 2005, a rise of over 6 percent, with illegal connections reaching 5.2 million.

The CASBAA Technology Showcase 2006, The Sun Mobile Forum, CASBAA China Forum, CASBAA India Forum and Targeting Japan, with additional keynote addresses and 'in Conversations' with Louise Sams, president, Turner Broadcasting System International; Kip Meek, chief policy partner of Ofcom and president of the European Regulators Group (2006); Zhou Xiaoning, VP New Media, Hunan TV and Irwin Gotlieb, the Global CEO of GroupM were also some of the attractions that the convention featured.

CASBAA also announced the winner of the prestigious CASBAA Chairman’s Award 2006 for 'the outstanding contribution to the Asia Pacific multi-channel cable, satellite and broadband pay-TV industries in the previous 12 months'. The accolade was presented to Peter Jackson, CEO of satellite system operator, AsiaSat.

The winners of the Pay-TV Advertising Awards in association with Media magazine were also unveiled. Coca Cola’s campaign "Coke: A Light Affair" scooped both the "Most Creative Use of TV" and the John Doherty "Campaign of the Year" trophies. CASBAA received more than 160 entries for the nine categories this year.

"This year’s event proved that the pay-TV players continue to work to deliver content via the most suitable media while making every effort to maximise the value of available bandwidth," said CASBAA chairman Marcel Fenez. "We remain convinced that Asian subscribers will gain yet more access to the highest-quality content delivered through the most effective channels."