Industry set to spin into Web business
Joint ventures, theme launches
The government is working with private enterprise to develop and broaden the city-state's digital media industry. That includes initiatives to encourage companies to funnel content into broadband pipelines, create new distribution platforms, facilitate more firms to provide video streaming, and step up training to give people the skills needed to work in new technologies.
"The industry is changing. Five years ago, broadcasting was just broadcasting. Today, everything is blurring. You can be a content provider for everything because of the convergence," says Tan Chek Ming, director of the Economic Development Board's services development division.
Pooling talent
"Our intention is to create a pool of people that can move around (the fields of) Internet, film and broadcasting," Tan adds.
In a program called Script to Screen, the agency will collaborate with local producers and broadcasters jointly to finance projects; the EDB also hopes to persuade the Singapore Broadcast Authority to co-fund productions. In one of its projects, the board gave tax incentives and grants to help launch Silicon Illusion's 3-D animation, streaming and motion capture facility.
The republic is home to about 20 production companies, 17 satellite broadcasters that collectively beam 70 channels around the region, four satellite uplinking facilities and several major post-production companies.
Move to new media
Typifying the shift to new media, the Asia Broadcast Center has formed a co-venture with Indonesia's Satelindo and Vortex Technologies to deliver Internet access via Satelindo's Palapa bird. Monikered PalapaNet, the service launched in June with 10 major customers (Internet service providers and corporations) signed up.
The main aim is to provide 'Net access to the many areas in Asia where fiber optics are rare or expensive, according to ABC marketing exec Vincent Hendrata.
SingTel Telecast, Singapore Telecom's satellite broadcasting services arm, this year signed new channels including India's Sahara TV and Korea Satellite Media, and formed a partnership with GlobeCast (the broadcast arm of France Telecom), to set up a booking, coordinating and monitoring center for GlobeCast's Asia-Pacific network of satellites.
Monica Pranata, a product manager at SingTel Telecast, says her firm also enables companies to transmit video via its Internet Video Hub.
Growing slow but steady
John Wigglesworth, creative services director at Four Media Co. Asia, is heartened to see some Singapore-based satcasters launching localized channels, encouraged by the regional economic upswing.
"The outlook is much more optimistic. People are talking about doing a lot more things, whereas a year ago they were shelving plans for expansion or being very conservative," he says.
Nonetheless, HBO Asia senior VP James Marturano notes the patchy economic recovery is affecting the pay TV business. "There are still some soft spots, and piracy is stunting our growth in the Philippines and Thailand."
Marturano forecasts growth of 3%-5% for both HBO Asia (which reached 3.5 million homes by the end of last year) and Cinemax (2.5 million homes) this year.
Despite the awarding of new pay TV licenses in Hong Kong, HBO opted to renew its exclusive license with Cable TV from July 1, as Marturano reasoned, "Sometimes it's better to stay with the incumbent which has the front-running status."
ESPN Star Sports managing director Sandy Brown forecasts a healthy 15%-20% growth in his channels' subs this year (up from a combined 94 million homes at the end of last year), driven chiefly by China and India.
Winning viewers
ESS is boosting demand by staging on-ground promotions such as the Play Zone, a sports carnival that drew big crowds in 17 cities in India and in Shanghai, and via local productions such as "Stumped," a cricket-based gameshow in sports-obsessed India.
When the ESPN and Star Sports channels merged in 1995, their combined losses totaled $103 million. Now break-even is "definitely within our sights," adds Brown, who is stepping down at the end of the year to return to the U.S. and will be replaced by ESS senior VP Rik Dovey.
Sony's AXN Action TV recently inked deals to launch on Hong Kong's Cable TV in August and to air on the Philippines SkyCable system, which expands the channel's universe to nearly 17 million households; in addition, an hour of AXN programming is shown daily in 22 million homes in China.
AXN m.d. Todd Miller lists a number of marketing initiatives designed to win viewers, such as animation fests in Singapore, Bangkok, Taipei and the Philippines that promote the channel's programs, and sponsoring the first man from Southeast Asia to set out to climb the world's highest peaks. The Malaysian-born mountaineer brings a camera with him, enabling people to see his endeavors on AXN's Web site.
MTV name hooks advertisers
MTV Networks Asia is shooting for 120 million-125 million subs by year's end, up from 104 million at the end of last year, according to president Frank Brown. The MTV brand and ever-widening distribution have proved to be big hooks for advertisers, resulting in a 36% gain in ad revenues last year and a 60% jump in the first quarter.
MTV Asia has five distinct feeds (covering India, China and Taiwan; Southeast Asia, South Korea and the Philippines) and Brown intends to add channels customized for Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia when he judges the conditions in each market are right.
Discovery Channel Asia senior VP Kevin-John McIntyre says, "Until robust growth in consumer demand returns to Asia, pay TV growth will be slower than it was during the 1994-1998 period.
"Although the crisis is widely reported to be over, in fact, consumer demand is only just now beginning to return to pre-crisis levels.
"We expect growth to continue at a slower but steady pace in 2001."
