{"id":4421,"date":"2017-07-06T11:13:38","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T15:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/"},"modified":"2017-07-07T06:48:11","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T10:48:11","slug":"asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/","title":{"rendered":"AsiaPac Summit Spotlights Tech, Content Intersections"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rapid take-up of fixed and mobile broadband is among the key factors reshaping how platforms and content companies engage with consumers across Asia, attendees heard at the second-annual APOStech summit in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

Organized by Media Partners Asia (MPA), the team behind the annual APOS event in Bali, APOStech gathered executives from technology companies, platforms and channels at the Conrad hotel in Hong Kong this week.<\/p>\n

Opening the session, Vivek Couto, executive director of MPA, noted that the conference is a reflection of how important technology, and the role of the CTO, is to companies operating in the media business. \u201cWe\u2019re very fortunate to have with us today 30 platforms\u2014cable, satellite, telecoms and also broadcasters\u2014who reach out to 90 million households.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"***Image***\"Aravind Venugopal, VP of MPA, then took delegates through the findings of MPA\u2019s latest industry research covering eight key markets in the region. Venugopal stressed the importance of next-generation broadband. \u201cIn the next five years, we forecast 30 million new next-gen broadband homes to be lit up.\u201d About 45 percent will come from markets like India, and 9 million will be from Southeast Asia. \u201cThat\u2019s 9 million new homes that will consume video services.\u201d Much of that will come from the conversion of legacy networks, \u201cbut there will be new customers who\u2019ve never had broadband in their life. That is an opportunity for video providers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venugopal also pointed to strong gains expected in mobile broadband usage across the region, led by 4G deployments. \u201cWe are forecasting there will be 395 million new mobile broadband subscribers between 2017 and 2022, of which 150 million will be in Southeast Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the end of this year, MPA forecasts just under 250 million pay-TV subscribers in AsiaPac, excluding China, of which 35 to 40 percent are in India. By the end of the decade, the base should grow to about 270 million. \u201cSome markets are under pressure. It would be unwise to say that the pay-TV market is still very healthy. It is healthy in pockets but there are challenges in many parts of the region. Some of these markets will continue to grow off the back of bundled services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greater gains are expected in SVOD subscriptions, albeit from a much smaller base. MPA forecasts an increase from 54 million to about 108 million in the next five years. \u201cThe key markets where that growth will come from are Australia, Japan, Korea, India and Indonesia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venugopal went on to note that there is \u201csignificant\u201d overlap between pay-TV usage and SVOD usage across the region\u2014except in the Philippines and Indonesia.<\/p>\n

Pay-TV revenues are expected to grow from $25 billion to about $40 billion in 2022. Free-to-air revenues will reach about $15 billion. Online video revenues are still small, and still mostly dominated by advertising, reaching about $10 billion by 2022. The biggest opportunity is in data revenues.<\/p>\n

A big concern for video services bundled with telco packages is churn\u2014subscribers, Venugopal said, tend to switch telco providers often in the search for better deals. Another big concern for the industry is piracy, especially when it comes to pirate set-top boxes. Venugopal also noted the issue of pricing models, with consumers citing cost as a key issue when churning away from online platforms.<\/p>\n

India was among the key markets in the spotlight at APOStech, with a keynote from Harit Nagpal, managing director and CEO at Tata Sky, who offered a frank and insightful commentary on the challenges and opportunities of the local pay-TV landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the outside you see a 1.3 billion population, you see 265 million, 270 million homes, and say, Wow, it\u2019s a great big market,\u201d Nagpal said in his keynote conversation with Couto. However, once you break up that 270 million into segments, based on income, you start to see the obstacles to making money in Indian pay TV. \u201cThe top 5 million customer homes are the ones who are willing to pay up to $10 a month for content. 100,000 of these would buy it at any price. The next slot is about 25 million homes who would be willing to pay anywhere from $5 to $10 a month for content. The bottom 100 million don\u2019t have a television at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top echelons of the pyramid tend to be paid for the entire month, with many on annual plans. \u201cThe challenge is the big chunk of customers who are averaging $3 a month\u2014they recharge for three days, four days, seven days at a time, and when the next recharge is due and they don\u2019t have money in the pocket or have other priorities, they won\u2019t recharge and my service [to them] goes off. I get 22, 23 days a month out of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Couto asked Nagpal about Free Dish, which is accessible to that mass market. \u201cFree Dish is something I welcome,\u201d Nagpal said. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult for a person to think of buying a TV and committing to a subscription every month. Free Dish is the only ally I have who will convert the homes into buying a TV first. Once [people buy] a television, my job becomes easier to convert some of them into paying a subscription to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conference agenda also featured input from channel operators, including HBO Asia CEO Jonathan Spink. The premium business has been \u201cremarkably robust,\u201d Spink said. \u201cWe\u2019re in the fortunate position that HBO has a very strong brand, a very good product, and it\u2019s held up really well. I can\u2019t say there aren\u2019t clouds on the horizon [from] black box piracy, which is damaging the whole infrastructure. That\u2019s the real threat we\u2019re facing.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the prospects for OTT in Asia, Spink, whose HBO GO platform is offered to pay-TV subscribers in the region through affiliate partners, noted that some of the stand-alone services \u201care remarkably cheap. Pricing will be the real key issue for companies that do go direct to consumer. You have to have a price you can make some money on!\u201d<\/p>\n

Stand-alone OTT operators also took center stage at APOStech, with sessions featuring executives from HOOQ, iflix and Tribe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe business model still needs evolution,\u201d said HOOQ CEO Peter Bithos. The platform recently added TVOD alongside its existing SVOD service. \u201cOne of the benefits we have is understanding how the customers operate and live their lives. In Southeast Asia, as soon as you get past today\u2019s pay-TV base, it\u2019s not just that the customer segment changes, it\u2019s the way they live their lives, the payments they use, how cash flow comes to them, how cash flow goes out. The models that you see today in OTT don\u2019t match that. We need to change for the customer. The customer isn’t going to change their lives for us. I don’t think a chunky monthly subscription is the only answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bithos noted that HOOQ was the first operator to launch a weekly subscription with Hollywood content. \u201cWe learned from that. Now we\u2019re taking the next two, three, four iterations of that. It is about not just understanding what content customers want, but also, how do customers live their lives? When is money in their back pocket?\u201d<\/p>\n

Emmanuel Frenehard, chief technology officer at buzzy OTT upstart iflix, talked about the journey the company has been on in developing relationships with telcos to expand across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Integration with a telco can take as little as 12 weeks and as long as 6 months.<\/p>\n

In the next 6 to 12 months, iflix is focused on expanding the number of devices it\u2019s available on, further experimentation with live events, as it\u2019s done in Indonesia, and making sure that the customer \u201cis finding more ways to connect with iflix,\u201d Frenehard said. \u201cWe\u2019re extremely focused on engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iskandar Samad, CEO of Tribe, talked about the rollout of the fairly new service, which is owned by Malaysian pay-TV giant Astro. \u201cBecause of our pay-TV heritage, we offer a fair amount of linear channels in addition to VOD, so we\u2019ve taken a slightly different approach.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rapid take-up of fixed and mobile broadband is among the key factors reshaping how platforms and content companies engage with consumers across Asia, attendees heard at the second-annual APOStech summit in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":4424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,69],"tags":[824,269],"class_list":["post-4421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-analysis","category-top-stories","tag-apostech","tag-media-partners-asia"],"yoast_head":"\nAsiaPac Summit Spotlights Tech, Content Intersections - TVASIA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AsiaPac Summit Spotlights Tech, Content Intersections - TVASIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The rapid take-up of fixed and mobile broadband is among the key factors reshaping how platforms and content companies engage with consumers across Asia, attendees heard at the second-annual APOStech summit in Hong Kong.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVASIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-06T15:13:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-07-07T10:48:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/07\/APOS-chart-717.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/\",\"name\":\"AsiaPac Summit Spotlights Tech, Content Intersections - TVASIA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-06T15:13:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-07T10:48:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"AsiaPac Summit Spotlights Tech, Content Intersections\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/\",\"name\":\"TVASIA\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. She can be reached on mdaswani@worldscreen.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/author\/mdaswaniworldscreen-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"AsiaPac Summit Spotlights Tech, Content Intersections - TVASIA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"AsiaPac Summit Spotlights Tech, Content Intersections - TVASIA","og_description":"The rapid take-up of fixed and mobile broadband is among the key factors reshaping how platforms and content companies engage with consumers across Asia, attendees heard at the second-annual APOStech summit in Hong Kong.","og_url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/","og_site_name":"TVASIA","article_published_time":"2017-07-06T15:13:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-07-07T10:48:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":368,"url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/07\/APOS-chart-717.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mansha Daswani","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mansha Daswani","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/","name":"AsiaPac Summit Spotlights Tech, Content Intersections - TVASIA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-07-06T15:13:38+00:00","dateModified":"2017-07-07T10:48:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/asiapac-summit-spotlights-tech-content-intersections\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"AsiaPac Summit Spotlights Tech, Content Intersections"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/","name":"TVASIA","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad","name":"Mansha Daswani","description":"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. She can be reached on mdaswani@worldscreen.com.","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/author\/mdaswaniworldscreen-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}