TV Viewership “In Cambodia, TV viewership is universal, our June 09 data shows up to 99 percent audience rate. This has been pretty consistent since we started measuring TV audience rates. Watching TV is a favorite activity during leisure time (over the week-end mainly) regardless of age, gender, education or income levels,” explains Laurent Notin, general manager, Indochina Research (Cambodia) Ltd. “According to urban data we have in Laos, TV audience rate reached 85 percent in 2008 down from 100 percent in 2007. Assumption for decline is that the urbanization of the country, the current economic growth (6.5 percent forecast in 2009) and the growth of other media (eg Internet and mobile phone) make people watch less TV. However, 80 percent of TV viewers watch Thai TV and this is not new, considering the low quality of Lao channels. The launch of a new and innovative Lao channel (Lao Star Channel) targeting the young people, may change this trend long-term.” Notin says that overall in Indochina Pay TV has been making significant inroads over Free To Air. “In Cambodia, the cable TV audience has been growing over the past years especially in Phnom Penh and large provincial capitals where people are more educated and wealthier thus can understand programs in non-Khmer language and can afford to pay for a monthly fee to watch TV programmes. English language channels are also very popular among teenagers who use them to improve their language skills. In Laos – Cable TV has been rapidly spreading in all urban areas of over the last five years. Cable TV was introduced by a Chinese investor; low cost with many available channels was the sales point. Currently, there are three cable TV providers. In rural areas, if electricity is stable, pay TV (cable) will also spread quickly too. And in Vietnam – data from local sources show that the average minutes per day watching Pay TV has increased from zero in 2003 to 34 in 2006 and is expected to exceed 100 minutes in 2010.” Explains CTN’s Glen Felgate, “Research is usually commissioned by individual companies using a research company such as IRL. It is usually the more mature international companies who are serious about their marketing campaigns that commission such research. There is evidence that Pay TV is gaining ground however there is no real concrete data as yet to support this. There are estimations of 200,000 people having access to pay TV in the capital Phnom Penh.” In terms of TV measurement. Notin says that IRL’s Media Index Survey in Cambodia measures viewership frequency, usual day/location/time watching TV, channels watched most often, favorite types of programs (by terrestrial TV Channels). “I can tell you that in both Cambodia and Laos, drama series/soap operas are the most common watched program, followed by news (local and international), movies and entertainment (concerts, comedies, etc.). CTN’s Glen Felgate says that international formats are starting to make an appearance in Cambodia. “CTN has led the way by buying Deal or No Deal from Endemol and La Academia from TV Azteca. Anyone wishing to sell international formats in Cambodia needs to offer some flexibility. There can be cultural constraints and even production constraints to take in to account.” In terms of imported fare, Felgate says Korean drama dominates the prime time ratings – only surpassed by local drama. “Some Filipino content has, in the past also done well. For the most part the international programming that does well is that which the audience can identify with – which is mostly Asian.” IRL’s Notin tends to agree. “I think a common point across the three countries (and all Asia maybe) is the success of Asian drama series: Thai/Korean series in Laos, Korean/Chinese/Khmer series in Cambodia, Vietnamese/Korean series in Vietnam. So yes, Korean dramas rate really well.” For Laos, Notin says the quality of local broadcast is still very low. “Thai programs, however, are perceived as very good and up to international standards. Considering that the Lao and Thai languages are 80 percent similar, it is not surprising to see Lao people consuming Thai TV and thus giving Lao TV a hard time to develop and compete with a ‘ready-to-use’ Thai TV. In Vietnam, there are many imported programming and local version of international formats, but not many of them are successful or rate well which can be explained by low local television technology, shortage of capital or insufficient television staff.” Asked of the opportunities for content and format provider in Cambodia, Felgate said, “Cambodians love soaps operas they can relate to so there are huge opportunities for Asian producers and channels to sell their drama products in Cambodia. There is also a shortaqe of comedy – especially the kind that does not need dubbing. In the future I would expect more TV stations to start buying more international formats for local production.. Ad spend According to IRL data (Media Adex) collected from the Media Monitoring department – advertising spend for Print & TV (rate cards only) January-June 9 has decreased by 30 percent compared to the same period in 2008. The top five spenders are all telco operators and advertising related to Telecommunications represent 25 percent of total ad spend at the end of June 9. The downturn has not affected Laos as much as the other countries. It is expected to be the fastest growing country of SE Asia this year (6.5 percent growth).” Comments Felgate, “As with everywhere people are more cautious. However, there is immense competition in the mobile phone sector which has helped to maintain advertising spend – at least on TV. In addition advertising on TV is currently very cheap in Cambodia (at an average of USD $150 per prime time spot) so there is almost no excuse for not spending on TV.” He continues, “TV really is the medium of choice when it comes to advertising. TV is seen as the main form of entertainment nationwide and was driven – in the past – by low literacy rates. In Cambodia if you are not advertising on TV then you really are not advertising. As Cambodia’s (leading) TV station we estimate that 95 percent of the population is watching TV – that’s about 3.5 million households.” Continues Notin, “For Cambodia – in June 09 YTD, TV’s share represented 82 percent of combined TV & Print ad spend. We do not have data about other advertising medium (radio, billboards). Contribution of TV spend was approximately the same at the same period in 2008. Because TV audience rate is so high and because advertising prices are so low, TV is the medium of choice for mass advertising. TV is often mentioned as the first source of awareness in most surveys we conduct for our clients.” New media & Mobile Notin says new media is definitely on the rise, and Internet penetration can only grow in the future due to its very low base currently. “Cambodia – according to our June 09 Media Index data, Internet penetration rate stands around 10 percent overall (19 percent in Phnom Penh). This is limited, but the young generation is becoming more and more addicted (in Internet cafés mainly). The biggest barrier to the development of the Internet in the country is its amazingly expensive subscription cost. Laos – Internet penetration rate reaches nine percent in urban areas (IRL media survey 2008). It is still very much limited to a professional usage. But usage incidence has been growing and will continue to grow in the future. Vietnam – According to local government sources, Internet usage has been on the rise since 2001 – Average number of mn per day has gone up from zero in 2001 to 30 in 2006 and is predicted to reach nearly 60mn/day in 2010.” As for Mobile, Notin describes Cambodia’s love story with the mobile phone. “The number of mobile phone users (estimated 3.8 million) by far exceeds the number of fixed lines (est. 48,000). 3G was launched a couple of years ago and there are currently 11 mobile operators in the country. There is definitely potential in this segment but focus should be first on increasing the level of usage of VAS in general. In Laos – Mobile penetration has been increasing rapidly (currently at 57 percent according to a recent IRL survey). There are opportunities to distribute anything via mobile phones. However, given that Lao people usually watch TV in groups (this is also true in Cambodia), it is not sure that TV via mobile will immediately work. We would of course recommend conducting research before launching such initiative. In Vietnam, on 2 April 2009, the Ministry of Information and Telecommunication granted licenses for four telecommunication operators to develop 3G mobile network. Thus, mobile 3G with its services and utilities including mobile TV will develop in the country. However, one of the immediate barriers is the fact that most of the current handsets in the market are based on 2G technology.” Adds Felgate, “There are an estimated 3-4 million mobile phone users in Cambodia and about 18,000 internet subscribers. While almost all the youth have access to a mobile phone, Internet use is more limited. CTN’s second channel MYTV is driving mobile phone and internet use via sms chat on TV and internet voting for competitions and programs. New media is expected to increase rapidly.” He explains, “At the moment MYTV is working with the country’s number one telco Mobitel. However, there is an intention to broaden this to include other operators for certain interactive applications. There appears to be a real mobile phone generation developing in Cambodia. The current Mobile phone penetration is about 30 percent which equates to about four and a half million users out of a population of about 14.5 million. This will continue to grow quite rapidly we feel.” “At present CTN is using a shortcode which is confined to one operator. Later we will start approaching other operators with a view to adding other numbers to allow more people to vote. At certain hours of the day, we allow people to choose the songs they would like to hear. We have introduced the concept with a simple ‘either-or’ vote. For example viewers can vote for song A or song B – the winning song gets played. We will soon expand this to a choice of four songs soon. The top two songs will then be played.” Felgate says that SMS chatting has proved particularly popular amongst Cambodia’s youth. “We allow viewers to chat live on-screen and it has really taken off; currently generating about 1000 text messages per hour. Text voting for songs is currently in the hundreds per song but we expect that to increase quite considerably. We are also soon to launch ring tone downloads which we think will increase song voting and other applications Given that ARPU must be extremely low, are volumes significant enough to be reaping any revenues from this? “The channel is not 100 percent reliant upon interactive revenue. The plan is to earn about 50 percent from interactive revenues and 50 percent from advertising. The interactive elements are there to attract the young audience who have shown that they want to participate and be heard. It is also very early days. This the first interactive channel in Cambodia and from what we have seen we expect it to grow. Soon we will be offering ring tones and ring back tones. There are also plans to offer wallpaper downloads and screen savers for mobile phones. And then after that – who knows? We are open to ideas.”
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