Distributed in Asia since 1996, TV5MONDE Asia- Pacific has become one of Asian markets’ major players and the only French language channel to be broadcast 24 hours a day. Since September 2009, TV5MONDE launched a second signal TV5MONDE Pacifique for Southeast Asia and Australasia, which is also available through pacific.tv5monde.com. TV5MONDE is present in almost all the countries in the region, reaching over 60 million homes by cable, satellite, ADSL and IPTV. It can also be accessed in over 200,000 hotel rooms.

What were the major developments for TV5MONDE’s Asian business over the last 12 months?

Over the last 12 months, TV5MONDE has launched a new thematic channel for the Asiaexclusive, high-quality and attracts a large amount of viewers all over the region. Our cultural positioning offers a real alternative to cable subscribers, and managed to meet its audience which goes far beyond the French speakers.

What are the challenges facing the Asian audience today?

The Asian audience faces the same challenges as other continents. Piracy is still a major issue in many places, but fragmentation of the audience to different screens and offers remains critical. Audience in Asia want to have access to the original content, wherever it comes from. The capacity to offer this service, non-censured, is therefore a major challenge for the industry due to the high level of regulation in many countries in Asia. This encourages piracy and Pacific and the Middle-East called TV5MONDE Style HD. This channel that is fully dedicated to French Lifestyle (gastronomy, travel, design, art of living), is 100% subtitled in English, simplified and traditional Chinese, and broadcasted in full HD. In the meantime, we have expanded our distribution in the region to over 60 million homes and launched our own OTT service, TV5MONDE+ Asia-Pacific.

What are the main strengths of TV5MONDE’s offering?

Our main strength is to be the only multi-genre (or general entertainment) channel on cable offering – everything from movies, dramas, documentaries, sports, kids, news and entertainment programmes. Furthermore, besides the vast variety of channels on cable, our content remains Asiaexclusive, high-quality and attracts a large amount of viewers all over the region. Our cultural positioning offers a real alternative to cable subscribers, and managed to meet its audience which goes far beyond the French speakers.

What are the challenges facing the Asian audience today?

The Asian audience faces the same challenges as other continents. Piracy is still a major issue in many places, but fragmentation of the audience to different screens and offers remains critical. Audience in Asia want to have access to the original content, wherever it comes from. The capacity to offer this service, non-censured, is therefore a major challenge for the industry due to the high level of regulation in many countries in Asia. This encourages piracy and turns subscribers and revenues to non-official services.

How has your business model evolved with content being available everywhere?

TV5MONDE has been providing streaming offerings since 2002 to the region. We have over 14 years of experience in this field. With the growing evolution of devices (smartphone and tablets) we have adapted our offers. As of today, we provide up to four live channels on our TVE (TV everywhere) service TV5MONDE+ Asia-Pacific, in a multi-cultural environment (French, English, Korean, Japanese) with full social integration, subtitling, adaptive streaming, etc. We will be adding VOD and Catch-up TV in the coming month at no additional charge to fully answer the needs of our viewers.