Japanese television is a massive industry that has become a focal point in Japanese culture. Pop culture and worldwide interest in Japanese productions often stems from Japanese television with more than 95% of citizens having used the medium daily since 1985, with a steady decrease in the amount of time spent reading the newspaper in that same time (NHK Opinion Research, 2000). Japan’s major TV networks include Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV), Tokyo Broadcasting Systems (TBS), … [Read more...] about A Slice of Japanese Television
Country Focus
Country Focus: Vietnam
Decision 20, administered on May 15, 2013, prevents local retransmission of four categories of foreign TV channels – movie channels; news channels; channels offering scientific and education programmes and documentaries; and channels offering entertainment, sports and music; requiring them to pay for simultaneous translation for all of their programming into Vietnamese. In order to do so, Decision 20 compels foreign TV channels such as CNBC, Eurosport and STAR World to register with … [Read more...] about Country Focus: Vietnam
Hong Kong: free to air?
The drama that’s threatening to shake up Hong Kong’s media landscape is in many ways more gripping than much of what’s been seen on local TV screens for some years. With high stakes and highprofi le players, the current wrangling over new free-to-air broadcast licences is costing the protagonists hundreds of thousands of dollars, and has put on ice the expansion and investment plans of both existing terrestrial broadcasters and those applying for new licences. Three aspiring … [Read more...] about Hong Kong: free to air?
Progress Report
The Malaysian government is pulling out all the stops. In the past few years, the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture, has launched several major initiatives aimed at growing the country’s creative sector. Goodies Galore A grant which the Ministry announced in 2012 is the Creative Industry Development Fund, which has a budget of US$33 million (RM100 million) for the next three years and will be regulated by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). The … [Read more...] about Progress Report
Indonesia Rising
Recent developments There has been much talk about the vast potential of the Indonesian pay-TV market. According to reports, since 2007, the total number of official pay-TV providers in the country has more than doubled. Total pay-TV subscribers has also increased tremendously – from 900,000 subscribers in 2009 to an estimated 2.3 million in 2012, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA). Additionally, MPA’s report, Asia Pacific Pay-TV & Broadband Markets 2012, suggests that … [Read more...] about Indonesia Rising
The buck stops here, and keeps rolling
You could say Singapore’s TV landscape in a nutshell has essentially remained the same in the last few years, dominated by a few major players. MediaCorp remains the country’s sole FTA broadcaster, and telco giants StarHub and SingTel continue to duke it out as the two pay-TV operators in the country. On the content front it would seem not much has changed either – networks distributing to the tiny city-state continue the battle for ratings, season after season. There is … [Read more...] about The buck stops here, and keeps rolling
