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Tag: television

  • Astro seen benefiting if Android box is banned

    Astro seen benefiting if Android box is banned

    Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd is the clear winner if the government moves to ban the sale of Android set-top-boxes (STBs) in the country as this could possibly halt or slow down its declining subscriber base and lift its average revenue per user (ARPU), according to HLIB Research. It was reported that the government has set up a task force to consider banning the sale of Android STBs, mirroring Singapore’s move last month.

    The rapid sale of Android STBs in Malaysia has hampered the development of Pay-TV in the last two to three years, HLIB Research analyst Khairul Azizi Kairudin said in a note.

    He said this is evident by Astro’s declining premium subscribers who opted to shift to Android STBs and other digital platforms (both legal and illegal).

    “In Malaysia, Astro appears to be the most impacted player with the rapid sales of Android STBs as evident by its declining premium subscribers in the past three years. However, we note that Astro has managed to slow down the subscriber loss with NJOI,” he added.

    Nevertheless, he noted that despite the ban on Android STBs, Astro would still face competition from legal streaming platforms such as Netflix.

    While Singapore took three years to review the ban of Android STBs, which includes amending its Copyright Act, Khairul expects a shorter timeframe for Malaysia as media companies have mooted the idea in the past two years due to the disruptive impact.

    “We believe the government has started the discussions on the ban by setting up a task force to review the current law,” he said.

    Additionally, he said HLIB Research views Telekom Malaysia’s (TM) recent announcement that their latest Unifi package would not be bundled with Unifi TV subscription due to changing consumer trends as a positive for Astro as this could assist the latter to expand their subscriber base.

    Astro controlled 77% market share of Pay-TV market in Malaysia and the rest is controlled by TM through Unifi TV.

    Khairul said should the ban on Android STBs material, it would be a positive catalyst for the lacklustre media sector (especially for Astro) which is being hampered by the digital disruption.

    “For now, we maintain our ‘underweight’ rating on the media sector. Following the recent surge in Astro share price, we downgrade Astro from ‘buy’ to ‘hold’ with an unchanged target price of RM1.70.

    “Nevertheless, Astro’s earning prospect remain intact on the back of its stable advertising expenditure outlook and coupled with generous dividend payment of 5% yield,” he added.

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  • Millennials to Decide Future of TV in Indonesia

    Millennials to Decide Future of TV in Indonesia

    As of 2016, according to the Central Statistics Agency’s estimations, Indonesian millennials — born between the 1980s and early 2000s — make up about 41 percent of the 258.8 million population.

    “The future will be in OTT and many want to capture this market. The number of millennials is going to be big in Indonesia and infrastructure is now being prepared. The government has rolled out 4G and smartphone prices are getting lower each year,” Greeny said.

    Genflix offers its customers thousands of videos, Japanese cartoons and other exclusive content. Genflix currently has three million subscribers, 60 percent of whom are paying customers. Most of them access the service via their smartphones.

    The catch

    Hendy Lim from the Redemption Entertainment said this is the moment for the local talents and content creators as the content-hungry OTT services will keep on coming to tap into the growing Indonesian middle-class. But there is a catch.

    Hendy, who has just left his position as the vice president of the media company MNC Group, said the OTT services need to compete with the deep-pocketed free-to-air televisions.

    “These free-to-airs can pay up to $30,000 per episode. I can’t tell the exact number, but I think [the OTT] can pay only 5 percent of it,” he said, adding that free-to-air revenues are high because many people still watch television.

    The on-demand services will also have to face uncertain regulations with regard to corporate establishment, taxes and censorship.

    Communications and Information Technology Minister Rudiantara promised that this year the government will produce a regulation governing the OTT services. The regulation will take into account the international tax treaty and censorship measures similar to those applied for televisions.

    Desmond Poon, chief technology officer of the listed internet service provider Link Net, said during the summit that censorship as such is against the idea of the internet.

    Despite the challenges posed by censorship and the not yet fully available broadband connectivity, especially in the easternmost part of the country, Poon remains optimistic the OTT business will continue to grow.

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