CASBAA Convention Wraps in Hong Kong

HONG KONG: OTT platforms, social-media engagement, the future of pay TV, piracy and advertising were among the key issues discussed at the CASBAA Convention, which ended in Hong Kong yesterday.

The convention took place at a new venue, the Intercontinental Hotel, under the theme “Making Waves.”

Speakers on day one included David Shing, AOL’s Digital Prophet, addressing content consumption in the new digital age, noting that “technology changes behavior not needs.” China Media Capital’s Li Ruigang weighed in on China’s needs for premium content, adding, “there is the need to build up a sustainable system to continue to be able to create more content.” Li also announced CMC’s acquisition of the China Soccer League and stressed the importance of his content partnerships with the likes of Warner Bros.

PCCW’s Janice Lee took to the CASBAA stage to tell delegates about the company’s new Viu OTT platform and the importance of strategic windowing strategies to combat piracy.

Keshet International’s Alon Shtruzman used his keynote to announce the opening of a Hong Kong office as the company expands its business in the region.

SeaChange’s Jay Samit addressed the future of the pay-TV business, noting, “The pay-TV business as we know it is dead. The majority of content is not linear and we need to adapt quickly or die.” He also stressed the importance of analytics. “Pay TV will be completely data driven. With social analytics now shaping content offers, the bottom line is you will go out of business if you don’t know who your consumer is.”

The ever-present problem of piracy was addressed by several speakers, including Irdeto’s Mark Mulready and the FCC’s Ajit Pai.

Day two of the conference schedule honed in on technology, ad models and new revenue streams. Audience measurement also took center stage. Lee Risk of GfK stated, “The more data you have the better. For accuracy, it’s important to have as many sources as you can but it needs the cooperation of whole industry.”

There were several speakers discussing branded entertainment. “The hero of the story needs to be the consumer,” said Tony Chow of Marriott International. “You need to understand the consumer. If you talk too much about your brand, the consumer is not interested.”

Also on the agenda was the revenue potential of OTT. Mark Britt from iflix said consumers will pay for content if they are “provided with a product that is compelling enough to be better than piracy at a price that everyone can afford.” Peter Bithos from rival platform HOOQ stressed the need for simple pricing models. “Creating different payment layers is too complex for the customer to understand. The customer will work out what they want.”

Also present at CASBAA was Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu, who joined AMC Global’s Bruce Tuchman on stage to talk about the series Into the Badlands.

The UNICEF Child Rights Award for Television was awarded to GMA Network from the Philippines for Bamboo, which addressed child labor.