Having A Strong Brand Helps
Asia is a complex business region where consolidation is still taking place, and where powerful entrenched national players exert considerable influence over the shaping of the marketplace. At the same time, Asia is at a crossroads especially as the issue of replacement capacity looms. Many countries that have national flagship satellite operators are feeling the effects of coverage limitations or what might be best described as a heavy emphasis on single-nation spotbeaming.
For Intelsat, which currently maintains 398 C-band and 98 Ku-band 36 MHz equivalent units in the region, there are lots of reasons for optimism. "The good thing about the Asia- Pacific region is that it encompasses such a large area, thereby ensuring that there is always some upside out there. At the same time, the region continues to experience fierce price competition," says Ashley Fernandez, Intelsat's regional vice president for Asia.
North Asia, including South Korea, Japan and China with the lead position of their traditional carriers well established, continues to be the most difficult part of Asia in which to make any meaningful progress, according to Fernandez. He indicates that a lot of time and energy must be devoted to cooperative endeavors where the outcome is muted and where no head-to-head competition is allowed to manifest itself.
"Telcos are still our largest customers, and this encompasses primary and secondary tier customers. Although we serve primarily as a wholesaler of capacity in the region, our Galaxy DTH venture in Hong Kong is an indicator that we are always looking at new opportunities beyond the traditional boundaries of our wholesale business," says Fernandez.
Asia's Appetite For Sports
Among other things, the demand for sports programming in Asia often gets overlooked. Many companies are mapping out how to best maximize their potential revenue from Asia's enormous appetite for sports, with the summer Olympics heading to Beijing in the coming decade, for example. For satellite facility operators, segmenting feeds and performing niche market production and distribution services represents one solid way to woo new clients who are looking to tap into the sports craze.
"Besides store-and-forward technologies, providing production and distribution services for sports events such as football (soccer), rugby and cricket is big business in Asia," says Scott Davis, president of Ascent Media Network Services, part of Santa Monica, CA-based Ascent Media Group.
As content becomes more regionally specific and as customers continue to put more product up there, the focus at Ascent Media is on how to best originate a sophisticated mix of high-end channels for each customer. "The emphasis is on complex presentation, multiple languages for both voice and subtitle, all in a tapeless, highly-reliable and fully- automated environment," says Davis. "This is happening at a time when there is an ever-increasing demand for more value-added services, including origination, content management and content creation."
Regional satellite operators and satellite terminal and hardware vendors alike are constantly exploring new opportunities in Asia. "We are looking at all new possible applications across our satellite fleet all the time. The deal we have recently concluded with Connexion by Boeing on their use of Asiasat 3S Ku-band capacity to offer in-flight broadband services is a very good example," says Jackson. Singapore Airlines and Japan Air Lines are two of the many regional air carriers that intend to implement the Connexion by Boeing service.
Email
Comments
Print
Reuse
