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Pay TV to spread quickly outside of Java
The Cable and Satellite and Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) predicts pay TV penetration in the country will accelerate especially in areas outside Java thanks to a growing economy and innovative operators
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The Cable and Satellite and Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) predicts pay TV penetration in the country will accelerate especially in areas outside Java thanks to a growing economy and innovative operators.
"The growth of pay TV usually follows the growth of national economy in a country. In Indonesia, a strong growth of commodity-based industries outside Java has helped increase demand for pay TV," Casbaa Chief Executive Officer Simon Twiston Davies said in an interview Tuesday.
He said over the last 18 months, the pay TV industry had shown extraordinary growth in subscribers, from 284,000 in September 2006 to 792,300 by the end of March this year, and that the number was expected to breach one million in 2010.
"Operators have now started to find ways to approach relatively low cost environments."
He said major operators continued to differentiate themselves by acquiring high-quality content, and that the procurements were expected to intensify over the next few years amid fierce competition.
He said regulators had begun to increase co-ordination, particularly the Ministry of Communication and Information and the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI).
"The government is also drafting a new broadcasting regulation that will cover all current and future types of broadcasting technology," he said, adding that the process needed to be accelerated in order to support the development of pay TV.
However, he said unauthorized redistribution remained a large problem in the country, and that most subscribers of unauthorized distributors were often unaware of their provider's status.
KPI Data shows more than 600,000 people received pay TV from unauthorized distributors in 2006.
"But KPI has made a positive step to curb the problem by announcing that unauthorized distributors must become resellers for licensed pay TV operators or face legal consequences," Davies said.
Pay TV has been available in Indonesia for 12 years from a total of six players, including Indovision, FirstMedia, Astro and TelkomVision.
