October 6, 2009
Expanding HD programs, relying on high quality picture to grasp for audiences
| Pay TV companies providing CS (communications satellite) broadcasting and cable TV will be expanding the high definition programs to their subscribers in October 2009. In the industry, due to the slackened growth of subscribers that is affected by the trend of a household budget cuts, competition has intensified. The goal of reaching new customers and retaining the loyalty of their existing subscribers is by enhancing the attractiveness of their sports and movie channels with high quality pictures. A CS broadcasting company, Sky Perfect JSAT Corporation, has drastically expanded the number of programs for their premium multi-channel “Sky Perfect HD” specializing in high definition broadcasting from the existing 18 channels to 58. Along with this, a variety of campaigns were launched; for example, free installation of the CS antenna for a new contract, a cash back of 5,000 yen to a customer that purchased selected items, TV sets or DVD recorders for people who subscribe to “Sky Perfect HD”, and waiving the rental charge of a HD tuner for an existing customer for six months. They have approximately 40,000 subscribers of HD channels at the moment and are working to increase the number to 260,000 by March 2010. Jupiter Telecommunications Co., Ltd, a leading cable TV provider in Japan starts their TV commercial offering subscriptions in the Kanto area first(Tokyo and the surrounding regions). Last April, they started to strengthen their PR on their HD channels and are aiming to acquire additional new subscribers. Compared to the free broadcasting stations, pay TV providers have been behind in the progress of making their programs high-definition due to a limited infrastructure, for instance an assigned broadcast band. Developing technologies to balance providing HD programs with a high informational capacity and multiple channels, assists in enabling them to expand HD broadcasting. The ratio of households contracting who pay for television viewing is at or around 25% in Japan. TV programs provided by commercial TV stations, which are produced by spending hundreds of billions of yen, attract more people. Additionally, in Japan, it is not widely accepted to pay for watching TV programs. However, there are quite a few programs such as sports channels that can be made more appealing to television viewers by offering higher quality pictures. The pay TV providers are expecting this to help expand the whole industry. |
