Attending the CASBAA annual convention on Cable and Satellite industry in Asia. Some notes from today, the first day. Will update periodically.

UPDATE: Follow conference on Twitter, David Wolf is also updating with the #casbaa tag.

Marcel Fenez of PwC
Asia’s pay tv had 17 percent growth last year to 300 million subscribers, 62 million of whom have digital TV.

Why Asia remains a good market for Pay TV:
- Home to 3 billion people
- 5 of largest 10 cities in the world
- 20 percent of global GDP (and rising as rest of the world comes down)

Alex Arena of PCCW
IPTV platforms have not yet been put together in a plug and play format for operators, so each company must build it themselves. As for the expansion of PCCW’s IPTV business, this will not come in terms of channels, but the way in which audiences use and interact with TV. Timeshifting and interactive functions.

Paul Mitchell of Microsoft
- Successful media needs to give an emotional connection.
- Content is king, but only if it reaches the audience. Content will seek the maximum distribution and distribution networks will seek the maximum content. Branding new users as pirates will not help.

Darren Childs, managing director of BBC Worldwide’s channel business
With multi-platform viewing, channels lose a level of control but this does
not mean the end of the channel. Channels become trusted editors across
many channels and platforms.

While adults are happy to access TV shows from any source, they want a
walled-garden approach for their children, re-enforcing the umbrella
effect of a trusted brand.

A new media does not exclude an old one. Even as BBC’s iPlayer gets 21 million views in some months, the viewership of the BBC’s television products has increased.

Online TV is still a land grab with little sign of revenue sources.
- Time release and premium channels cannot exist. If they want to watch it now, they will find a way to do so. If you do not provide it, they will do it in a way that does not benefit you.
- Content is no longer exclusive. If you can monetize content, make a partnership.
- Single fixed peak viewing time no longer a valid model. New devices and new media do not change what people want to watch. Catch up services have meant people don’t just have to sit at home to get key moments of what is going on.
- Net must be thrown very wide to catch potential competitors. Mobile phone companies and websites are now competitors to the television industry. They are, however, actually frenemies. YouTube might have tons of illegal content, but YouTube also has a huge number of deals with established broadcasters.

Wide screen TVs are on the way. Instead of 16:9 it could rise to  21:9. Audiences love it.

Impressive iPlayer demo. The pmotto: Making the unmissable unmissable.

iPlayer has 1.4 million users per week. The users are man around 40 with full time job and wife but no children. Uses the iPlayer at home. Specific usage habits: Goes for specific programs, not for browsing. He cannot be bothered to download programs, preferring lower quality streaming for increased convenience. He does sometimes skip linear TV to watch on the iPlayer.

He goes through the BBC home page to get to the service, not through the iPlayer, which shows that the BBC remains foremost on his mind, not the iPlayer brand. Lack of completeness of iPlayer catalog annoys users.

3- conclusions

1- Linear TV channels are here to stay as the core piece of media consumption. The core will remain the linear TV channel brands.
2- Do not be frightened by the changes, they can be seen as tremendous opportunities.
3- Digital is a way of building audiences and developing a relationship.