The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) is one the most prominent associations of its type and a key defender of the satellite industry in Asia. The region is highly lucrative for satellite, given the demand for pay-TV and other services via satellite. John Medeiros, chief policy officer, CASBAA talks about the challenges facing the organization this year and how it aims to make things better for satellite players across the region. According to Medeiros, the issue of piracy has gotten worse in the region, something that is costing all industries related to it such as DTH, broadcasting, and by extension satellite, a lot of money. The question is whether there is anything CASBAA can to redress the balance.

VIA SATELLITE: What are some of the key regulatory challenges facing CASBAA this year in the Asian satellite industry?

Medeiros: We see several continuing regulatory challenges. One of them is the challenge to help make the Indian framework for satellite services more market-oriented. We have just released a report with PwC titled “Easing India’s Capacity Constraints.” This report points out several different ways in which the Indian government can improve the functioning of the market for satellite services over India.

India is a huge market for satellite services, both in C- and Ku-band. We would very much like to see the Indian government take some measures such as extending the allowed duration of contracts for satellite transponders, and making it easier for Indian companies to increase their capacity on approved satellite platforms. We also recommend opening up the ‘Planned Bands’ of spectrum to be used by Indian DTH broadcasters. All of this is aimed at making the Indian satellite market function more smoothly.

Another goal, which is a multi-country goal, revolves around the challenge of preserving C-band satellite spectrum for the satellite industry. This is not something that will come to a head in the next year, but we are looking ahead to the ITU WRC conference in 2015. CASBAA is starting now to meet with Asian governments, and inform them of the satellite industry’s position to make them aware how important the C-band frequencies are to their people and their countries. One thing about the satellite industry: it sits there and works quietly in the background and a lot of times governments are not aware how dependent their people are on satellite. We will be working with Asian governments in the next two and a half years to try and make sure our industry has their support for defending the C-band frequencies in 2015.

Finally, there is a challenge in West Asia – not so much in East Asia – of state sponsored jamming of satellite transmissions. The ITU has looked into this, and denounced the jamming. We continue to watch that issue very carefully.

VIA SATELLITE: Do you believe the satellite market is economically sound and vibrant in Asia considering the ongoing global recession?

Medeiros: The global financial crisis for the entire broadcast and satellite industry in Asia was something that was short-lived and not very deeply felt. The impact has well and truly passed. We are into a new cycle in Asia. We never saw a serious downturn in broadcasting in Asia, except for the odd isolated market such as Taiwan, which is heavily reliant on advertising revenues. But, in any case Taiwan is not really a satellite TV market. I don’t see any global macro-economic slowdown in the region.

VIA SATELLITE: Which markets in Asia do you see as having huge growth potential for satellite?

Medeiros: After India, I would say Indonesia and Thailand. Thailand is a country that is unique in Asia, in the sense that 50 percent of homes have satellite dishes. That means there are a lot of potential consumers of satellite services in that country. It is a dynamic and confused market for satellite right now. But, there is a lot of potential for companies that can find the right formula for offering services.

VIA SATELLITE: What trends do you see emerging in the region?

Medeiros: The biggest trend we see in Asia is more linear TV. Asia is a tremendously heterogeneous marketplace. You have several markets, which are very mature, already heavily penetrated by pay-TV and broadband, moving toward less linear television. But, you have other mass markets, which are poorly penetrated. We will see the importance of traditional linear broadcasting here well after the industry has gone in other directions in North America and Europe.

Another trend we are seeing is a difference in content flow. Twenty years ago, the flow of content was one way. It was coming from the developed world (Europe and North America) and into Asia. You are seeing more and more intra-Asian content – from places such as Korea and India – being consumed throughout the region. You are seeing Asian content migrating outwards and being viewed in other continents. That is an important aspect of the development of the Asian industry. Asian companies are becoming multi-national and they use satellite very effectively to deliver their content. Companies like Astro in Malaysia and Zee in India are two examples of this multi-national approach.

VIA SATELLITE: DTH continues to grow strongly throughout the region. Do you expect the levels of growth to continue over the next few years?

Medeiros: We have several more years of strong growth in the DTH industry in Asia and I am very bullish about its short- to medium-term health. We do have some markets that are starting to mature, but we have other markets that are under-penetrated by TV and pay-TV specifically. Markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Myannmar, for example, are low-income markets, but they have very large potential audiences. So, if you make an offer that attracts millions of households even for low ARPU, you become a very successful businessman. The DTH business in Asia is doing just that. India is a market that has a lot of players, but the PwC study forecasts there will be a doubling of TV channels in India over the next five years. This is predicated on the desire of the population to watch more TV in their local languages, with regionalized and new content. It is a big country with a lot of different regions and languages. So, despite the fact there are already so many pay-TV providers in the Indian skies, there is a lot of potential for additional TV channels in that market.

VIA SATELLITE: Piracy has been a major issue in Asia over the last few years. Has the situation improved?

Medeiros: I regret to say the situation has not improved, it is getting worse. The phenomenon that is making it much worse, much faster is online piracy. We are seeing it become far easier for Asian consumers to access illegal programming online. Governments in Asia are doing nothing to stop this. This is a mushrooming of online piracy.

The markets impacted the most by this are the ones where broadband penetration is at its highest. You see places like Singapore, Korea and Hong Kong severely affected by online piracy. You don’t see that much in India or Indonesia yet, because broadband connectivity is relatively low. The bad news for the content industry is that broadband penetration is going to rise all over, and as it rises, the online piracy problem will get worse and worse. The amount of revenues being lost to piracy is very, very high right now, but there aren’t any reliable statistics.

VIA SATELLITE: India and China are seen as massive growth markets for satellite, but with very strict regulatory regimes. Is that situation changing?

Medeiros: The situation is changing but the two markets are very different. They both have restrictive aspects to their systems, but both very different. The Chinese system closes the country to most players outside of China, making it a totally domestic market for satellites as well as TV broadcasts. India is a large and open market for TV programming, and a de facto open market for satellite services as well. What the Indian government does, unfortunately, is make it difficult to do business. One of our key goals is to get the Indian government to become more market friendly. But, it is not the fundamental openness of the country that is the issue here, even for satellite – it is the way they do business. Look at one practical example: Something like 75 percent of Indian satellite TV broadcasts are coming over foreign satellites now.