Content & Carriage Revolutions Took Center Stage at CASBAA

HONG KONG: The CASBAA Convention, which wrapped last week, shined a light on the rapidly changing business models and technological shifts taking place in the TV landscape across the Asia Pacific.

“The new models provide huge opportunity,” said Simon Twiston Davies, the CEO of CASBAA, “while more than 420 million non-terrestrial TV connections are being logged across the region. Meanwhile, there are already more homes with multichannel TV in Asia than the rest of the world combined.”

Among those who took part in panel sessions during the event were Jana Bennett, the president of worldwide networks and global iPlayer at BBC Worldwide; Blair Westlake, the corporate VP of the media and entertainment group at Microsoft; Jeff Shell, the president of NBCUniversal International; and Nobuya Wazaki, the president of WOWOW.

Tetsuo Yamakawa, Japan’s vice minister at the ministry of internal affairs, discussed the pay-TV penetration in Japan. Ravi Mansukhani, the managing director of IMCL, talked about the task of digitizing the Indian market. Liang Xiao Tao, the president of CITVC, examined how TV audiences are evolving in China, shifting toward online viewing and social media. Malaysia’s multi-channel landscape was also of note. “Nearly 50 percent of the population have never had pay TV and they’re the ones who aren’t having their needs met,” noted Kathleen Syron, the chief content officer at YTL Communications.

The role of social media in the TV viewing experience came under the spotlight, along with consumers’ increasing appetite for on-demand content. John Couling, the VP of marketing, products and platforms at Dolby, who mentioned that the next frontier will be bringing top-quality sound to mobile and tablet devices, so that there’s greater continuity of content quality across platforms.

Also at the event, CASBAA raised nearly $50,000 during the annual Charity Ball presented by Turner for Plan International’s Early Childhood Care and Development Project to benefit underprivileged children in the Philippines.