ATF 2013: digital, interactive and… free?

With a clear trend towards digital & interactive, Prensario had the chance to speak with many companies that have created or have plans to create an online platform. The main dilemma is about the business model… monthly fee or ad supported? That’s the question.

China, for instance, is a good example of this ‘difference of criteria’. On one side, we have the success example of Sunny Zhu, Chief Content Officer at Youku Tudou (that reaches 80% of the Chinese market), who explained in our first daily report, ‘90% of the incomes comes from advertising, while the rest 10% is from VOD fees’.

On the other side, Michele Mu, deputy general at production and distribution company Beijing Jingdu Century Culture Development, considered: ‘The ad supported model is not as successful as everybody think. Together with the five major drama producers in China, we aim to create next year a platform with a new business model. The idea is to offer 10% of the whole series as a trial and, then, if the users like it, they have to pay the full series. We truly believe that our stories will attract them to make them pay’.

Another good view is the online platform based in Singapore, but with regional reach, Viddsee. ‘Our objective was to create our own platform for local and regional filmmakers. And we successfully did it: nowadays we have 200 titles available in English for free to over 130.000 unique users. We expect to create a big community of close to 1 million users in a year, and then we plan to go to a paid model’, remarked the co-founders Derek Tan and Ho Ji Jian.

What it may be understood from these examples is that in Asia, digital is what is taking the industry to new stages… and challenges. Nobody doubts about this: if you can’t find a TV channel for your content, don’t worry. Create your own platform. Where? How? Internet is the most common answer.

Again, China is a good picture. There, drama production is a real matter: an average of 15,000 episodes are produced during a year, what makes the country the biggest worldwide drama producer (SARFT, 2011). But, 60% of that production is not broadcast, so there is a proliferation of platforms and portals offering these series. ‘There is an audience of 50 million people watching series on the Internet’, estimated a source that knows well the Chinese market.

Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) organized yesterday a conference, where it described four successful examples of interactive contents developed in the country, including animation series for kids, live action series for teens, as well as sports productions. Since 2009 the agency has organized 77 interactive projects and the results have been amazing in South Korea: interactive viewership increases for three and among the viewers, 26% now use interactive features.

Another interesting trend detected by Prensario is the expansion of Free TV groups to Pay TV business. Singaporean leading broadcaster MediaCorp has released last year Toogle, an online platform that offers over 20 linear channels and contents in different formats and models (for free and with monthly fees). In Indonesia, Kompas TV (launched in 2011) is also moving towards the pay TV industry next year.

Last Monday and Tuesday, just before ATF begun, the Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) and the French Embassy in Singapore organized a workshop about acquisitions and programming strategies for broadcasters in Southeast Asia. ‘Close to 20 television channels from Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar attended the event’, confirmed to Prensario Stephanie Rabourdin, regional audiovisual attaché for Southeast Asia.

Fabricio Ferrara

Full Story Meet the Asian growth at the ATF 2013 (December 5) | Opportunities and good expectations (December 4)