Event Preview: CASBAA

October 31-November 3
Grand Hyatt Hotel, Hong Kong

Executives from across Asia’s pay-television landscape will descend on Hong Kong’s Grand Hyatt Hotel this month for the annual CASBAA Convention. Simon Twiston Davies, the CEO of the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia, offers up some insight into what delegates can expect, and discusses how the industry body has evolved over its 20-year history.

The challenges and opportunities for servicing Asia’s 365 million multichannel homes take center stage at the CASBAA Convention this year, under the theme of “TV365: Watch Closely!”

“The program explores television in the myriad ways it can be experienced, 365 days a year, in more than 365 million multichannel TV homes throughout Asia, on a 360-degree range of platforms and devices,” says Simon Twiston Davies, the CEO of CASBAA, the industry body for the Asia Pacific’s pay-TV industry. “The theme reflects the evolution of the multichannel TV industry in Asia and is a fitting topic for this year’s convention, which has been designed to celebrate CASBAA’s 20th anniversary. Now, more than ever, the concept of television has evolved to encompass technologies not even dreamed of in 1991. With video content now truly transportable, consumer-driven demand and the prospect of more localization is providing a compelling story line for multichannel TV today. The CASBAA Convention will bring together industry leaders to exchange and share information on topics ranging from technological advances to trend intelligence and insights into Asian markets.”

Consumers are certainly demanding access to content on multiple devices, but Twiston Davies concedes there are challenges ahead for TV Everywhere-type initiatives in Asia. “While the concept of TV Everywhere is starting to pick up in Asia Pacific, it is not anywhere near as developed as in the United States, as its adoption is largely determined by the regulatory environments concerning digital rights and further complicated by viable business models and commercial considerations,” he notes. “There are certain countries that are beginning to take the first steps in the process, including Australia (FOXTEL), Singapore (StarHub) and Indonesia (Groovia), as well as in Malaysia, Thailand, Korea and Japan. In order for TV Everywhere to evolve, though, there must be closer cooperation between platforms, the regulators and content providers to make these options viable.”

The speakers on the CASBAA Convention agenda include NBCUniversal International’s Jeff Shell, CITVC’s Liang Xiao Tao and Microsoft’s Blair Westlake, among others. Panels will explore topics such as app development, over-the-top television and branded content. There will also be sessions on China, Malaysia, India and Japan. Also on the schedule is a panel entitled Founders Day: Back to the Future, where veterans of the early days of Asia-Pac pay-TV—Michael Johnson, Gary Davey, Ted McFarland, Peter Gontha, Clarence Chang and Peter Jackson—will discuss how the industry has evolved.

As CASBAA celebrates its 20th anniversary of representing the interests of Asian pay-TV operators and channels, Twiston Davies points to the dramatic changes that have taken place in the landscape.

“When a half dozen young executives from Asia’s nascent pay-TV business gathered in a Hong Kong bar in the spring of 1991, there was only a vague idea of what a regional industry association dedicated to pay TV might achieve,” he says. “The core group was drawn from a handful of channels, a satellite operator, some hardware providers, some marketing people and couple of journalists. There were no minutes. Nobody guessed that two decades later Asia’s pay-TV industry would encompass some 10,000 TV channels, 25,000 cable and DTH operators, $45 billion in annual revenues and 365 million pay-TV homes reaching over a billion consumers.”

He continues, “The industry is so much more than just cable and satellite, embracing the new worlds of digital multichannel television, online content and distribution, mobile services, billions of dollars of advertising and even gaming. Looking back 20 years we can see the inaugural CASBAA meetings with the governments in Beijing, Delhi, Seoul, Bangkok, Jakarta, Hanoi, Manila, Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore. Those first meetings were ‘sticky’ for the commercial participants and reluctantly taken by the government officials. Today, more often than not, there is genuine dialogue between industry and regulators and both national and multinational players are involved in decision-making, shaping a very different future from that back in 1991. Local investment has grown; global commitment to Asia is here to stay. Meanwhile, the annual CASBAA Convention—now in its 18th year—has become the flagship event for the multichannel TV industry, providing networking opportunities and a key platform for the exchange of information between industry leaders.”