Hong Kong – The CASBAA Convention 2008, held October 28 – 31 attracted more than 1,700 delegates, speakers and sponsors from around the world. A consistent theme of the Convention 2008 was affirmation of the strong consumer base from which the Asian industry is working in late 2008. “We now have a customer-base of 300 million pay-TV connections across Asia Pacific creating a minimum annual turnover of more than US$20 billion year,” said Simon Twiston Davies, CEO of CASBAA. “While the Asian TV ad spend may stumble in the coming months, we see few signs of a slow down in subscription revenues.” Even as others noted a fragmenting market as new platforms and distribution lines have blurred the pay-TV business model, Ben Pyne, president global distribution at Disney Media Networks assured the audience that new platforms enhance revenues, rather than undermines them – and they were all about the future. According to Pyne, the average age of online viewers is 31, while the average TV viewer is in his mid-40s. Abe Peled, chairman and CEO of NDS, said the costs of technology are coming down sufficiently to make technology affordable in emerging markets – in low APRU markets like India, Asia and Eastern Europe, “where we see a lot of growth coming,” said Peled. Nripendra Misra, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), reiterated that India’s priorities were to move ahead with convergence and complete digital transformation by 2010. Another priority, he said, was ensuring ‘constructive’ competition in the market.