Digital TV subscription penetration forecast to jump in Asia-Pacific, but marketers aren’t convinced
As eMarketer highlighted in India, digital media is growing fast in emerging markets, but traditional media still receives the majority of ad spending. TV is especially resilient, as marketers continue to rely on the ubiquity of home boxes, and remain inclined toward the strong campaigns they can create for television.
According to the May 2012 Cisco Systems report, “Visual Networking Index: Service Adoption Forecast, 2011-2016,” by 2016, digital TV will be present in 61% of homes in the world, helped along by countries switching from analog broadcast to digital. Asia-Pacific, with the largest number of digital TV subscriptions in 2011, will more than double to 663 million in 2016, to account for 58% of total households in the region.
The benefits for Asia-Pacific consumers, and marketers, don’t stop at clearer picture and sound. The added bandwidth lets broadcasters split their programs across many channels in the same slice of spectrum, allowing for more programming and marketing opportunities. The potential long tail could allow for more ad inventory for marketers, as well as more targeted, niche and local programming.
However, marketers aren’t terribly excited about the potential for TV in the region. When Campaign Asia-Pacific and Ipsos polled marketers throughout Asia-Pacific in February 2012, only 17% indicated that in 2012 they would increase their usage of paid or cable TV services over the levels of 2011. At the same time, only 8% of marketers planned to reduce spend on TV, compared with reductions in other traditional media, namely newspaper and radio, by 16% and 13%, respectively. Will digital TV represent a missed opportunity, as marketers shift their attention to newer formats like social and mobile?
Not likely. As shown in Australia, consumers in Asia-Pacific are increasingly multitasking when it comes to media usage, often anchored around their favorite TV programs. The increased reach of digital TV enhances the convergence of media in the home and presents new multichannel marketing opportunities, particularly in the digital realm.
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Check out today’s other articles, “What Defines a 'Data-Driven' Company?” and “Smartphone Users Show an Affinity for Tablets.”