For most media agencies there is no doubt that TV remains the most effective way to reach a large audience quickly and cost effectively. In a fragmented advertising world, across multiple countries, languages and media options, utilizing the highly targeted benefits of subscription TV has been, up until now, a rather complicated play across Asia. With over 315 million higher income homes in the region now receiving 24 hour subscription TV, the industry has at last come of age, available in nearly 50 percent of the TV universe. The evolution of subscription TV as the region’s pre-eminent advertising medium may be obvious, but for the broadcasters, it just wasn’t happening fast enough. Taking advantage of a slowdown in ad revenues for traditional media such as print and terrestrial TV, the major regional subscription networks have now joined forces for the first time to create the Asia Television Advertising Coalition (ATAC). On behalf of the broadcasters, the advertising team at the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) interviewed agency heads at most of the big media agencies and held a series of focus groups with the regional budget decision makers and planners. The most consistent feedback from the agencies was the need for an objective industry point of view – a single resource and quantifiable information on the investment of their ad dollars. They also wanted access to global advertising case studies and a dedicated source for news and developments in the industry. Thus ATAC was born, and has the backing of all the major international broadcasters. The stakeholders in ATAC are all leading members of CASBAA – Turner International, Discovery Networks Asia Pacific, Sony Pictures Entertainment, FOX Networks, STAR Group, CNBC Asia, Bloomberg Television, National Geographic Channel and NBC Universal, together representing nearly 50 channels across the region. Following the global recession and slowdown in monies targeting ‘new media’, several of the region’s most influential media experts are predicting that advertisers will stay with the tried and tested medium of TV to reach large audiences. Latest research show that advertisers on subscription TV benefit from a more targeted audience than traditional TV and that pay TV also delivers an upmarket profile. Subscription TV viewers are more likely to buy high-end products and services. “The sooner more advertisers look beyond simple national borders and to where the real clusters of our target audiences are, regardless of nationality, the better,” says James Smyllie, regional account director at Carat in Hong Kong. The ATAC Website and Pan Regional TV Sourcebook were soft launched in July 2009 and have already been well received by the industry. New data such as valuable cluster analysis of subscription TV viewers based on the PAX Database and a regional overview of the audience research data sources available to planners are all included in the package. Following the publication of the first sourcebook ATAC is now attracting interest from other Asian TV broadcasters and media companies in the US and Europe. ATAC has also entered into data sharing partnerships with organizations such as Thinkbox in the UK, MCN in Australia and SNL Kagan in the USA, bringing a more international perspective to its offering. A formal launch to introduce ATAC to clients, agencies and broadcasters is planned for 22 and 24 September in Singapore and Hong Kong respectively. This will be an opportunity to showcase success stories and examples of the data that will be needed to support a direct approach to advertisers on the unique benefits of advertising on subscription TV. Guy Abrahams, regional communications director for ZenthOptimedia in Asia Pacific also supports the initiative, “There’s no excuse on either side – clients or agencies – to be ignorant of what the medium has to offer. We’re all very excited to learn more if there’s more to learn.” Moving forward, the Coalition plans to release a second publication in October 2009 to take advantage of the marketing opportunities provided by the CASBAA Annual Convention which will take place in Hong Kong at the beginning of November. In today’s time-shifted, ad-skipping, fast-forwarding world there is a fundamental shift happening in the way people are watching television. One of ATAC’s areas of focus will be on actual case studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of the medium in a way that flat out numbers cannot. Mindful of the acceleration of convergence, the subscription TV networks are also keen to show an ability to stretch clients’ investments across multiple platforms. In addition to the core TV advertising campaign, online and increasingly mobile, can offer the capability to bring the advertiser and consumer face to face. The adoption of new technologies will ensure that subscription TV is more effectively monetized and remains the most powerful, visual and emotional advertising medium. The introduction of digital TV as well as TV via the internet and mobile will also bring a new impetus to the development of better audience measurement services. The consolidated ATAC approach will be more equipped to handle these changes. For CASBAA and ATAC the next twelve months will also see developments into more localized markets and platforms with special features planned for Hong Kong and Singapore and a more in depth look at sourcing Advertising Revenues (ADEX) regionally and in strong local pay TV markets such as Malaysia. The ATAC Q2 2009 ‘Pan Regional TV in Asia’ sourcebook is available on line at www.casbaa.com and the dedicated website can be found at http://atac.casbaa.com. Julie Petersen is CEO of MAN Media based in Hong Kong. With over 30 years of commercial broadcast and international advertising experience, she is currently working with CASBAA, the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia on behalf of ATAC, the Asia TV Advertising Coalition.