There is no correlation between democracy and market growth: Christopher Slaughter

Interview with CEO, CASBAA

The three-day CASBAA (Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia) convention, which started in Hong Kong on Monday, is one of the biggest events for the Asian television industry. A few days before the convention, Christopher Slaughter, chief executive of CASBAA, spoke to Vanita Kohli-Khandekar on the Asian pay TV sector. Edited excerpts:

How do broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific region view OTT - as a revenue opportunity or a threat? (OTT refers to over-the-top content on screens other than TV, on smartphones, tablets, etc)

That depends on who you are talking to. There is no one who is not grappling with it. They may not be able to implement it. In places such as Singapore and Korea, OTT is a disruptor. Most broadcasters are offering it as a defence measure. However, the fact is even for channels that have a robust OTT offering, the bulk of their business in Asia comes from traditional pay/cable TV (It is estimated OTT brings in less that five per cent of revenue for most broadcasters in the region). However, there is no doubt that is the direction in which we are going. OTT matters when you have sufficiently robust broadband such as in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Korea. It also matters because online piracy is now hitting the industry (John Medeiros, chief policy officer for CASBAA, says in Singapore and Hong Kong, premium movie subscriptions are going down because of piracy. That is why sports is so important to broadcasters - it is difficult to pirate. That is true for news, game shows and reality shows with phone-ins, etc; all these are difficult to pirate).

Your view of the TV markets in China and India?

China is huge, though not terribly open. It has a lot of home-grown content, as there are restrictions on adapting formats for local TV. India is different, more dynamic, with so many channels and incredible growth. As digitisation takes off, there would be more accountability. Digitisation will change the whole dynamic of the business.

What is the correlation between democracy and market growth?

India is the biggest democracy in the world, but digitisation had to be forced through. There are places where democracy has a tenuous hold, but that doesn't change the market opportunity, for example Indonesia or the Philippines. Taiwan is going through a massive democratisation process, but its pay TV market is not flourishing. So, while the political transformation is immense, the market transformation is glacial. Therefore, there is no correlation.