I believe, from a global perspective, the television industry is
seeing the co-existence of both radical progress and nostalgia
in entertainment. This trend, to a certain extent, is also being
reflected in China.
We have seen the emergence of shows featuring apps to allow
simultaneous home participation, as new technology re-shapes
the way people consume entertainment and TV executives
overcome their fear that new media is a monster devouring
traditional media.
However, it is fair to say that none has proved to be a phenomenon or the next big thing,
demonstrating that technology alone is not a magic bullet and that characters and storytelling
remains the core of a programme.
As the largest and most distinctive market in the world, China’s media industry is undergoing
a fundamental transformation that has attracted the world’s attention. Following the influx of
foreign formats and other genres over the past two years, new regulations have been put in
place limiting the number of formats each broadcaster can buy from abroad.
Hence, co-development has become the catchphrase in China. Undoubtedly, some companies
follow this approach in order to achieve a long term goal of strengthening their in-house creative
capacity, to master the know-how and expertise of developing a programme. However, a large
number of them undertake co-development tactically, just to get around the new regulations.
According to Media Partners Asia (MPA), after China, which unsurprisingly makes the bulk of
the new subscribers, the largest growth territories are India, South Korea and Indonesia. MPA’s
research also highlights that between now and 2020, there will be 318 million new subscribers
– 125 million excluding China. Most will be in South Asia, including India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka,
and South-East Asia, mainly Indonesia.
The statistics are good news for broadcasters in general. And it is Asia’s burgeoning middle
classes that are the driving force behind this pay-TV growth. There has been top-line macroeconomic
growth in the major economies in Asia, leading to a growing middle class, and with
that, people who want multi-channel TV.
This is the situation in many economies in Asia such as in Indonesia, where pay-TV is poised
for very high growth. There’s also more content available and more relevant local content in
languages people speak. When you take them all together, there are a lot of factors driving
growth in pay-TV.
