ASIA-PACIFIC BROADCASTING

SINGAPORE – In spite of the doom and gloom brought about by the current economic downturn, a number of industry players in the region believe that Asia will still see growth — especially in the broadband and IPTV sector.

This positive piece of news and more were some of the key points discussed at the recent Infocomm Media Business Exchange (imbX2009), a large gathering of Asia’s goverment leaders, business personalities and industry professionals from the infocomm and media sectors held in Singapore.

Stakeholders of the show — Singapore Exhibition Services (SES), the Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) — said that amid the global slowdown, there are still opportunities and prospects for investment and development in Asia.

In fact, the infocomm industry’s strength is evident despite the unpredictable conditions in the global economy. Infocomm sectors in many Asian countries are out-performing the rest of the economy, said the stakeholders. Market intelligence firm IDC has projected that the combined telecoms services market of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand would reach US$35.7 billion this year, which is 10% higher than last year’s performance.

Acknowledged as essential in enabling operational efficiencies and developing new business opportunities, investment 
in infocomm technology (ICT) is set to continue, said the stakeholders. A recent example is the Singapore government’s announcement of investments of up to S$1.73 billion (US$1.2 billion) in infocomm projects for the public sector for 2009. These projects range from the delivery of government e-services to developing national infocomm infrastructure.

Recently, 10 Asian countries via a consortium of major telcos signed a Memorandum of Understanding to plan and develop an international undersea cable system within the Asia-Pacific region.

The deployment of such fibre connectivity between countries in the region could serve as a boost to broadband-based content delivery, thus opening up more IPTV and other offerings delivered via fibre cables.

More opportunity is therefore available for content deployment for telcos like Singapore Telecom (SingTel), which announced that it has recently signed up its 100,000th subscriber for its IPTV service, or the Philippine Long Distance Tele-phone Company (PLDT), which launched its fibre-to-the-home service last month.

Infrastructure, however, is not the only indication of growth. According to David Wood, head of Emerging Media for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the technology is already in place — with content providers being able to offer hybrid services like a combination of IPTV and other Internet-based offerings.

Currently, Wood said, what is coming to light is how IPTV can reinvent itself into a more compelling proposition.

“IPTV is not a new idea,” he said, adding that industry players are continuously looking for new business opportunities such as how IPTV can differentiate itself from other TV services, and how advertising or other revenues can be derived from operating an IPTV service.

“In general, the growth is less dramatic than what we thought would have been, perhaps five or 10 years earlier. But now, we are in a new situation and, to some extent, we’re looking for a kind of re-birth of IPTV.”

Meanwhile, Asia’s media sector has also enjoyed steady growth, with projects in key markets continuing an uptrend in making international breakthroughs. Recognising the growth prospects of this strategic sector, the Singapore government recently announced that it will set aside S$230 million over five years under the Singapore Media Fusion plan to develop the local media industry, representing a 40% increase in funding from the previous Media 21 blueprint.   

R&D in interactive digital media remains the key component of this thrust.

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