Asia's Pay-TV Services Face Rampant Piracy
As pay-television services across Asia have grown in quantity and quality over the past five years, they are now confronting a consequence of their own success -- rampant piracy that is crimping investment and hurting profits.
The amount of money leaking out of the pay-TV industry in Asia, excluding Japan, Australia and China, now totals $874 million, or about 10% of the industry's total revenues, according to an estimate by CLSA Emerging Markets. Pay-TV piracy is also growing at a rate of 11% a year, according to CLSA.
The pay-TV industry is still taking shape in Asia, and only got its start about a decade ago. But over the past few years, as the channel offerings from cable companies and satellite-TV access providers have become richer, there is a greater incentive to find a way to steal and resell that premium content.
"It's a product of the success of the industry," says Simon Twiston Davis , chief executive of the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia, which is holding its annual conference in Hong Kong this week. "The service is better and has more channels and therefore is more attractive to steal."
The lion's share of the piracy comes in the form of last-mile cable operators who underreport the number of subscribers they serve. Because their fees are based on how many households they reach, underreporting subscribers allows them to keep their own costs down while growing revenues. In some markets, such as India, the problem is enormous. The country has some 22,000 cable operators, some with just a few hundred subscribers, making an industry-wide crackdown unfeasible.
But the industry is also fighting against a proliferation of pirated set-top boxes, which can enable an illegal hook up to a cable or satellite system. In some markets, such as Hong Kong, homes and businesses can also pick up satellite feeds that are directed at other markets, such as Thailand. And some cable operators continue to swap out the ads from premium channels they offer and insert their own ads instead.
Simon Dewhurst, the head of media investment banking at CLSA, says the high rate of piracy is stunting the growth of the industry. "Getting people to invest is difficult when 10% of their revenues are going somewhere else," he says.
Getting a handle on the problem won't be easy. Much of the piracy, says Mr. Davies, is a consequence of a weak regulatory structure that doesn't safeguard intellectual property. And the pay-TV industry needs to work with numerous different governments on separate pieces of legislation in order to tighten up control. "It's an ongoing process and it will not end," says Mr. Davies. "I think we can significantly slow that growth [of piracy] down with the cooperation of all parties."
猖獗盗版袭击亚洲付费电视
不管从质量还是数量上看，亚洲付费电视在过去5年中都大有进步，但这种成功也给它们带来了烦恼－－猖獗的盗版让它们难以获得投资，付费电视的利润也受到负面影响。
里昂证券新兴市场(CLSA Emerging Markets)预测，不包括日本、澳大利亚和中国，盗版已经使亚洲付费电视损失了8.74亿美元，占行业总收入的10%左右。而且与此同时，盗版仍在以每年11%的速度增长。
大约10年前才刚刚起步的付费电视目前在亚洲还处于发展阶段。最近几年，随著有线电视和卫星电视提供的频道不断增加，给剽窃付费电视内容提供了更多可乘之机。
亚洲有线及卫星广播行业协会(Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia)首席执行长戴维斯(Simon Twiston Davis)在本周于香港举行的年会上表示，"盗版是付费电视行业成功的副产品"。他说，"付费电视服务越好，收看频道越多，对盗版的诱惑也就越大"。
终端有线电视运营商谎报收视用户数量是最主要的盗版形式。这些终端运营商的成本是根据收视用户的数量来确定的，他们只要将收视用户数量少报一些，成本就会下降，但收入仍然可以继续增长。在有些市场，比如印度，这种问题是十分严重的。印度有大约22,000家有线电视运营商，有的只有数百家用户，要在行业内普遍打击盗版显然是行不通的。 不过，付费电视行业现在正坚决抵制一种盗版机顶盒的扩散，这种装置可以非法接通有线电视或卫星电视系统。比如在香港，家庭和企业居然可以接受到发往其他市场，如泰国等地的卫星电视信号。还有一些卫星电视运营商将付费频道的广告取消，在广告时间内插播自己的广告。
里昂证券媒体业投资银行业务负责人西蒙?杜赫斯特(Simon Dewhurst)说，猖獗的盗版已经威胁到这个行业的成长。他说，"收入的10%会流失得无影无踪，这使付费电视行业很难获得投资。"
要解决这个问题并不容易。戴维斯说，松散的监管结构对知识产权保护不力，是造成盗版现象屡禁不止的主要原因。目前各国对保护知识产权的立法条文支离破碎，付费电视行业需要与不同国家的政府合作才能达到加强监管的目的。"这是一个永无休止的过程"，戴维斯说，"我相信各方精诚合作一定可以有效抑制盗版的蔓延"。
