The progression of
media technology has been making huge differences in modern people’s life. New
media have a huge impact on media industry, social media becomes one of many news
resources; people can get information from variety terminals, such as smartphone,
iPad, etc. New media will also change the future of mass media.
The literal
meaning could explain the word “mass media”: the mass media are diversified
media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience through mass
communication. (n.d., wikipedia) However, social media create platforms where
people can support others who share their passion. People don’t need to sit in
front of a television, flicking the channels to seek programs that they are
interest in. Instead, they can get and share interesting contents directly with
people on social media. “People feel more and more pressed about the volume of
information flowing into their lives. So, they customize the information flow
in order to manage their lives well and in order to get the material that they
feel is most relevant to them.” (Lule, J., 2012) In other word, traditional
media outlets are no longer meet the audience’s requirements of seeking
specific, personalized content. In this situation, extending the niche market
will be a way to strengthen the competitiveness of traditional media.
Niche markets
consist of group of consumers (market segments) within the larger marketplace
who have a similar demographic, buying behavior, and/or lifestyle characteristics.
(Thilmany, D., n.d.). According to Doctor Pedro: “the market for niche goods is
relatively small and characterized by a low elasticity of substitution between
varieties, as niche goods target very specific tastes.” (Bento, P., 2012)
A response to market segment
is narrowcasting. Instead of broadcasting, narrowcasting focus on deliver
custom-tailored contents to predisposed audiences. Two groups will benefit from
narrowcasting: the audiences and the advertisers.
The
Audiences:
As early as the 1970’s,
Uses and Gratifications theory came up with an assumption that audience members
are not passive consumers of media. Rather, the audience has power over their
media consumption and assumes an active role in interpreting and integrating
media into their own lives. Audiences are responsible for choosing media to
meet their desires and needs to achieve gratification. (Katz, E., Jay G.,
Blumler, G., Michael, G., Winter, 1973–1974)
Today, on one
hand, audiences are face with Content Ocean. Information comes from a variety
channels, platforms, and terminals, which provides audiences countless choices.
On the other hand, audiences with diversified, educational backgrounds,
different financial conditions，different occupations, and different ages have different interests.
It is impossible for traditional mass media to meet everyone’s requirements. That
explains why although there are hundreds of channels on TV, we still flick
channel by channel, and can’t found one interesting program that draws our
attention.
Narrowcasting, on
the contrary, owns clear goals; is not intended to reach a large audience, but
attempts to reach specific audiences though specific content. For example,
there are fishing channels to provide fishing programs all days. There are two consequences,
for people who love fishing. They might like to watch the fishing channel all
day, while, people have totally no interest in fishing might not ever watch
this channel. In this situation, most narrowcasting channels deserve extra subscriptions,
so that they can continue produce programs for people who share the same
passion. According to the Uses and Gratifications theory, and other research, “people
are willing to pay for content, but only when they find value in it or in the
experience of gaining access to it” (Brian, R., Fall, 2009)
The
advertisers:
On April 11, 2014,
Samsung Electronics released a fitness wristband with the world’s first curved
1.84” Super AMOLED® display. To promote this wristband, launching TV commercials
could be a good ways. However, Samsung may not be willing to spend their
advertising money on people older than 80-years, because there is less
possibility that they wear this wristband and work out in a gym. Throwing adverting
to the target audience will helps companies save considerable money, and bring
better effect.
From another
aspect, too much advertising will be very annoying to audiences. As a result, media
conglomerates are looking for a better return for their money and dwindling adverting
revenue. (Comtois, L., Spring 2012).
Narrowcasting
channels do not only rely on adverting incomes. The subscriptions fee can help
the channels to reduce the need of advertisings. Meanwhile, focusing on the target
audience of the advertiser can help the channels increase ad rates. Take the
fishing channel as an example; fishing gear and outdoor equipment companies can
easily reach their target audience by posting advertising on the fishing
channel. The audience no longer complains about irrelevant advertising; buying
behavior is more likely with the audiences of this channel.
Narrowcasting
in Asia
The rise of
narrowcasting in America started in the 1980’s. With the decline of the Big
Three NBC, ABC, & CBS and the broadcast method, the premium cable and pay
TV networks emerged at the right time. With nearly 30 year’s development,
narrowcasting in America is becoming mature. The graph below shows the growth
trends of North American narrowcasting industry revenue. (Heitsch, R., May
2011)
Unlike the America
narrowcasting industry, which has already become the predominant model of media
delivery in American society today; the narrowcasting industry in Asia is still
in beginning stage, which means the potencies and uncertainties coexist in the
same industry.
According to
research on 10 of the largest regional pay-tv operators in Asia, regional enquiry
agency Media Partners Asia (MPA) expressed that until 2015, the profits of
Asian is leading pay-tv operators will have an annual growth of more than 10%.
In Southeast Asia, according to survey data from Media Partners Asia, by 2017, Indonesia's
pay-tv penetration rate will increase from 1.8% to 16.3%; Thailand will
increase from 3.5% to 8.7%. Meanwhile, India already has Nineteen million Pay-tv
users in 2015. In Northeast Asia, China, Japan, and South Korea are the main
forces for pay-tv development. (Xiong, F. & Ling, Q., December, 2011)
South Korea:
The financial
crisis in 1997 hit the South Korean economy. At this grave time, the South
Korean government came up with a legal provision for cultural industry called Framework Act for the Promotion of theCultural Industries. Until 2010, the outputs of the South Korean cultural
industry was more than $65 Billion, it was 6.5 % of GDP. (Lin, P., Huang, H.,
Cai, W., June 2012) There is no doubt that South Korea has become a strong performer
in cultural industry development. The pay-tv businesses also made remarkable
progress in these years.
tvN is one of the South
Korean pay-tv channels. Since it was founded in 2006, tvN developed quickly and
it is now in to the forefront of the industry. The sitcoms made and broadcasted
by tvN took both the number one and number two rating position in overall
pay-tv sitcoms average rating in 2014. Moreover, according to ACNielsen’s statistics
the Variety show, Three Meals A Day,
broadcasted by tvN, beat interval television programs of terrestrial television
channels KBS and MBC in the same time slot. In other word, the rating of tvN
was higher than some channels that are free of charge. It is not an easy job to
attain this achievement, especially for a channel that is younger than 10 years
old.
The slogan of tvN
is: “No. 1 Trend Leader”. To become
the No.1 trend leader of the TV business, tvN targets a younger audience who is
between 20 - 40 years old. The way to attract the younger audience is to break with
the traditional South Korean drama and variety show pattern. tvN uses decidedly
fresh material, singular storylines and new actors. Take the series Misaeng (The title translates to
"an incomplete life") as an example; the story takes place in a
workplace. It describes how a newbie struggles in a huge corporation and conquers
daily problems with all the effort that entails. Because the series authentically
shows the South Korean corporate culture and abuses, it has stuck a chord with
young people who try to survive the fierce competition. At the same time, the
series gives people hope, so that they could work harder. In one word, Misaeng has been getting some good responses;
it was the television ratings winner for overall pay-tv in 2014.
Not only tvN, there
are many pay-tv channels that also perform well, such as JTBC and OCN etc. It
is a pleasure to see that there is healthy competition among those channels.
Competition is the guarantee of high program quality. Continuing to put full
emphasis on content and program quality will lead the South Korea pay-tv to
have long-term development.
China:
The first set of Chinese
pay-tv channels was launched in September 2009. As of 2011, there were more
than 130 pay-tv channels in China; the user numbers grow from 300 thousand to 9
million, and the total revenue rose by 30 billion Yuan (about 5 billion dollars).
However, at the macro level, pay-tv users only take 10% of the total TV users.
The development is not satisfactory.
There are several
reasons for this consequence. First, the quality of the programs is uneven. Take
SiTV as an example, SiTV is one of four major paid channel platforms. It works
both as program producer and operator. The company owns 15 pay channels. Some
channels play very attractive programs, such as Channel Young. On its website, it clarifies its target audience as “the
urban consumer group who pursued fashion trends”. This channel is like a
fashion magazine; it shows people how to keep up with the latest things, and
discover interesting places for people to go. However, some other channels
belong to SiTV, such as Charming Music. It
just plays the same programs and music videos weekly, and the music videos are
from years ago.
The second reason
is they use an unwise sales method. As I mentioned above, the biggest advantage
of pay-tv is customization. People can choose the specific channels as their
prefer. However, in China, the only way to purchase the pay channel is to buy
the whole combo. If I want one channel made by SiTV, I have to buy a package
that contains the other 14 Channels of SiTV. It just likes the old recording industry.
If you like one song on an album, you have to pay for the whole CD. I think
that is one of the reasons why people turn to play digital music today. I think
this sale method not only limits the advantage of pay TV, but also challenges the
customer’s right of choice.
Third, the audiences’
habit and video websites are another threat to pay TV. The Chinese audience is
used to getting free stuff, they don’t understand why they need to pay extra
money on TV since they could already watch the “free” channels. Meanwhile, the
online video websites are under fierce competition. Those website do not
hesitate to pay high cost of copyrighted material. As a result, I, as an
audience, can watch the 6 seasons of modern
family, and 4 seasons of two broke
girls for free, as long as I watch all the pre-video adverts. All those programs
have perfect English and Chinese subtitles. I can’t come up with a reason pay
extra money on a TV channel, unless it has programs as hilarious as these two.
The Future
As Doctor Jack
Lule wrote in his book: “Although different forms of mass media rise and fall
in popularity, it is worth noticing that despite significant cultural and
technological changes, none of the traditional media has fallen out of use
completely.” (Lule, J., 2012) Even social media and online video has its power,
the TV business will not fade out. After all, for most modern people, after a
long day sitting in front of a computer and dealing with high pressure work,
when they get home, turn on the TV and lay on the coach is a good way to relax.
And for elder people, television is an old friend, which is easier to control.
As I mention
above, there are a lot of research data that shows that pay TV has a good development
prospect in Asia. Here are two suggestions for its future development.
First, the philosophy:
“Content is king” is not a new concept for the media industry. No matter if it
is new media or traditional media; the only difference is the channel for
information dissemination. Attractive contents, useful contents are always the
real reason for audience media use. Pay TV has a higher requirement for
content. Again, “people are willing to pay for content, but only when they find
value in or in the experience of gaining access to it (Brian, R., 2009).”
The situation in
Asia in media developments is different in different countries. Some countries have
more capital and resources, while they lack the experience to make good
programs. On the contrary, some countries know how to make attractive programs
while lacking of capital. The good thing is, those Asian countries have similar
cultural roots, so that they could cooperate in the media field.
Second, technological
development plays on important role in media industry development. There is no
doubt that Pay TV involves technology support. Report indicated that the pay TV
cryptosystems are being hacked to a different extent in Japan and Singapore. The
hackers make kind of illegal STB, which allows people to watch all the channels
for free. They sell the STB at a very low price online to make money. Improving
technology can avoid this kind of lost and protect producers’ intellectual
property.
Asia's population accounts
for about 66.7% of the world's population, is one of the world's most populous
continents. I believe pay TV will find its way to development within these
audiences in the future.
