Asian broadcasters are still skeptical about the returns that can be made from major investments in HD channels.

“There is no pot of gold from HD,” Ian Carroll, executive vice president and general manager, Turner Broadcasting Systems, said June 14 during the “Broadcasters Kick Off — They Pay the Bills” panel at the CASBAA Singapore Satellite Industry Forum.

Jonathan Spink, CEO, HBO Asia added, “A lot of people built capacity on the theory that we will build HD content up. There is not much money in HD. There is a cost without a return. Companies want HD. There has not been the problem of the capacity, but there has not been a huge clamour for HD. It will come year by year. We will be looking to do more in HD. It is a chicken-and-egg situation.”

Bob Billeci, senior vice president, technical operations, Sony Pictures Television Networks, was more optimistic than some of his counterparts but still sounded a note of caution. “HD continues to roll out in Asia. I think it will be two years before we see some critical mass,” he said.

Carroll also said the business case for an HD news channel is still difficult for broadcasters to justify. “As soon as a news story breaks, you have a trade-off between speed and quality. Speed is still the most important thing. It is about getting whatever video you can. Increasingly, if the event has some legs, there is rapid transfer of SNG operations, so you have to have the ability to get the SNG facility in there as soon as possible. You need to get expensive equipment in places with bad power, for example, so I think that gives us an idea of the challenges in the newsgathering business. It is hard to see news stories will be gathered in HD in the near future. It is impossible to predict where you will need those facilities. It is a big technical challenge” if we wanted to move to HD in terms of news.

The cautious tone of broadcasters spread towards DTH, where despite strong growth in a market like India, the potential for growth in other markets remains mixed. “There is some skepticism about DTH. We are not terribly excited about small DTH opportunities in Asia if the technology is not ready,” said Carroll.

“I think India has seen the most dramatic growth (in DTH subscribers) in such a short space of time,” Spink said. “I think DTH growth has been relatively slow in other markets. DTH has struggled in Japan. In Indonesia, you are seeing some good growth now. Astro is doing pretty well in Malaysia, but if you take India out of the equation, DTH is not growing dramatically.”

One of the big issued was disaster recovery and having TV channels operate when there are technical issues with the satellite. Billeci said this was a key issue for Sony and hoped satellite operators would be more flexible in the future. “I think in general satellite operators are beginning to be more comfortable in offering disaster recovery. Bandwidth that is not generating revenue is not doing us any good. I think we need to look at more creative ways in terms of dealing with disaster recovery. The ROI is not good to have capacity up there not being used. The traditional model is changing as the market changes. We are expanding and growing, regionalizing our feeds. We have maximized our platform. There is a lot of revenue at stake if we have a problem,” he said.

Most broadcasters agreed that satellite will remain the dominant platform of choice for broadcasters in the region, even though fiber alternatives may increase. Mark Whitehead, senior vice president and general manager, BBC Worldwide Channels Asia, said, “You have to look at the economic alternatives to satellite such as fiber. Sometimes fiber can be the best option,” he said.

“Our business plans are demand driven. You end up at looking at delivery technologies, but then the engineers squeeze a little bit more bandwidth” out of the satellite, Carroll said. “Point-to-point delivery is the threat. We need to make sure the satellite is used as efficiently as possible. We have looked at point-to-point a lot in the last six months. I think satellite has a leg-up on point-to-point. We are going to be find ways to live together with satellite for a long time.”