IPTV overtakes Satellite in APAC
According to Digital TV Research, the number of paying IPTV subscribers in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) overtook paying satellite TV ones in 2015. The research house says IPTV growth is far from over with 123.5 million subscribers expected by 2021. China is expected to contribute 78.4 million IPTV subs (or nearly twothirds of the region’s total) by 2021.
Of the 314 million digital TV homes expected to be added between 2015 and 2021, 107 million are expected to come from digital terrestrial TV (DTT). Conversely, the number of analogue terrestrial homes is expected to fall by 158 million. Digital cable is expected to contribute 113 million additional homes, with analogue cable losing 72 million. Pay satellite TV is expected to supply an extra 30 million, with FTA satellite TV adding 10 million.
Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “So pay- TV penetration will rise from 61.1% in 2015 to 69.2% in 2021, adding 127 million subs to take the total to 647 million. Even more impressive is that digital pay TV penetration will climb from 21.2% in 2010 to 44.9% in 2015 on to 68.3% in 2021. Digital pay-TV subscribers will nearly quadruple from 164 million in 2010 to 639 million by 2021.”
APAC premium OTT market
Asia-Pacific’s premium OTT market will undergo rapid growth by 2019 despite challenges, according to Vindicia and Ooyala.
A study conducted by MTM covering 80 participants in Australia, Indonesia and Thailand — reveal significant challenges to expansion due to broadband infrastructure and content Via Satellite events localisation, revenues are expected to grow strongly between now and 2019.
Figures go from around $85 million in 2015 to $230 million in Australia; from $7 million to $40 million in Indonesia; and from $8 million to $45 million in Thailand.
Local service providers will own a significant portion of the market and will dominate in Indonesia and Thailand, while Netflix will be the dominant player in Australia. The study highlights three main challenges to premium OTT market expansion. First, industry executives believe broadband infrastructure challenges and limited access to affordable fixedline services are significant barriers to growth.
Second, despite the appeal of international content, respondents believe local-language programming is essential to the proliferation of premium OTT services in Indonesia and Thailand.
And third, while the presence of Netflix will drive OTT market expansion in general, consumers will struggle with Netflix’s one-size-fits-all offering.
“There’s no doubt that Asia-Pacific is a hotbed of premium OTT service expansion that will evolve based on regional nuances, tastes and economics,” said Bryta Schulz, Vindicia SVP of marketing.
“The next 12 to 24 months will function less as a test of whether or not premium OTT will take off, but more as a measure of how it will penetrate popular appetites,” said Schulz.
In light of the above growth, satellite operators are challenging the industry with new launches to serve the growing broadcast and communications need in APAC.
CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum 2016
Few will deny it that the global satellite transponder prices have tumbled outside of the highest value DTH markets. Could we be close to an equivalent to the end of Moore’s Law for today’s compression technologies? Or, does the price point plunge tell us that the service providers are now in the driving seat, or that the increasingly savvy retail customers may yet squeeze the distribution value chain until the pips squeak? The annual satellite assembly will touch on every minute issue, case studies, discussions and current trends.
The forum key note speakers will include CEOs such as Tom Choi of ABS, Bill Wade of AsiaSat, Dr Nathan Kuntz of Kymeta, Matthew O’Connell of OneWeb, Mark Rigolle of LeoSat, PJ Beylier of SpeedCast, Dan Goldberg of Telesat Canada and many more. The event is held on 30 May at Pan Pacific Hotel, Singapore.
SES launch
SES has successfully launched its largest satellite to serve the Asia-Pacific region. The satellite was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
The SES-9 weighed 5.3 tonnes at the launch and has 57 high-power Ku-band transponders, which will be used to serve the fast-growing video, enterprise, mobility and government sectors across Northeast Asia, South Asia, India, Indonesia and the Philippines.
According to SES, the additional capacity on SES-9 will enable DTH operators to broadcast more local content and increase their SD and HDTV channel line-up to 22 million households across the region.
It will also deliver high-speed broadband services and mobile backhaul to remote regions to enable the deployment of communication networks, such as banking and e-government services.
In addition, the satellite is equipped to meet the demand for maritime connectivity with its dedicated mobility beams, which will provide comprehensive coverage for the 26,000 vessels expected to sail worldwide on high-traffic maritime routes in 2016, such as between the Suez Canal and Strait of Malacca.
“SES-9 is an important building block in our strategy to grow in dynamic regions and four prime sectors — video, enterprise, mobility and government,” said Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer of SES. “With its dedicated mobility beams, it will help us to capture new opportunities in the buoyant markets for maritime and aeronautical connectivity.”
SES-9, which was built by Boeing Satellite Systems International, will be co-located with another SES satellite, SES-7, at the prime orbital location of 108.2 degrees East, and will replace the NSS-11 spacecraft at that position.
First Maritime VSATS on FRIENDSHIP
SES also took the effort to assist medical team in remote locations recently. SES and FRIENDSHIP, a non-governmental organisation, along with the technical assistance of Square Informatix (Bangladesh) Ltd, launched the first state-ofthe- art Maritime VSATs on three of FRIENDSHIP’s floating hospital ships – Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital, Emirates Friendship Hospital and Rongdhonu Friendship (formerly the Rainbow Warrior II) Hospital.
SATMED, the newly deployed satellite-based e-health platform, will enable FRIENDSHIP to establish communications with national and international doctors from remote areas, to provide medical counselling to marginalised communities through telemedicine and to exchange medical knowledge with local doctors. SATMED is an IT enabled cloud infrastructure accessible around the globe that facilitates data exchanges between professionals and medical frameworks such as electronic medical records and teleradiology systems. The platform is an open, flexible and affordable solution that perfectly fits SES’s range of satellite based e-activities.
The project is funded by the Luxembourg Government and implemented in cooperation with SES Techcom Services and e-Medical Communication (eMC).
STN is launching a new commercial initiative
STN announces that it is spearheading a new commercial initiative to help content owners and broadcasters across the Asia-Pacific region to reach new audiences in the international markets including Europe, Africa and the US. STN’s goal is to help Asia- Pacific-based broadcasters to take advantage of the growing phenomenon of ‘diaspora broadcasting’.
Anver Anderson, General Manager of STN, explains, “Today people are more mobile than ever before, and we see consumers more readily moving from country to country to pursue career and business opportunities.
“With their increasing prosperity and buying power, those communities are keen to be entertained in their own language with original content from their country of origin,” he continued.
With its world-class teleport transmission facilities in Slovenia in the EU, STN is able to help make this a reality for expatriate consumers, enabling them to enjoy more entertainment in their own language and representing their own culture. At the same time STN is poised to help content owners and broadcasters across the Asia-Pacific to realise these new commercially attractive business opportunities by enabling them to deliver their content to more places in the international markets.
STN is increasing its commercial focus on the Asia-Pacific region in order to assist broadcasters link in to STN’s global network more easily and seamlessly than ever before. STN believes that with its worldclass facilities and global reach, it is second to none in its ability to help Asian-based broadcasters and content aggregators enhance their businesses, build audiences and grow revenues, by extending into international markets.
MEASAT Builds Asian UHD
MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd. (“MEASAT”) and Television Entertainment Reality Network International have signed an agreement for the distribution of INSIGHT UHD channel via the MEASAT-3a satellite. INSIGHT UHD is the second UHD channel distributed via the 91.5°E video neighbourhood.
Insight UHD is Asia’s first UHD factual entertainment channel. The channel, featuring original UHD material co-created with industry-leading production houses, brings a range of content from entertainment to extreme sports, and from game shows to beautiful, vivid cinematography. Under the agreement, MEASAT will use MEASAT-3a’s global beam to deliver the channel to pay-TV operators across Asia-Pacific and Australia. The MEASAT-3a global beam also covers the Middle East and Eastern Africa.
On another deal, MEASAT Satellite Systems partnered with Paris based CLUBBING TV to reach millions of homes with the launch of CLUBBING TV HD. Distributed through the MEASAT-3a satellite at the 91.5 degree East hot-slot, the channel will reach over 200 million households across Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Australia and East Africa. CLUBBING TV is the only 24/7 lifestyle and dance channel in Asia dedicated for millennial generations.
