Asian broadcasters urged to united to face the West
Asian broadcasters urged to united to face the West
JAKARTA (JP): A senior business executive warned yesterday
that broadcasting companies in Asia may lose business in the
region if they fail to cooperate with each other to compete
against western broadcasters.
"We need to get together and agree that innovation and meeting
customer demands are the right ways to go. This will help Asia
communicate and keep the region on an equal footing with our
global competition," Peter Gontha of the Bimantara group told a
three-day seminar here on "Open Skies Policy: Towards an Open
Society, the Challenge of Public Broadcasting in Asia."
The seminar, which will end today, is organized by the
Indonesian Institute for Press Studies, the unrecognized Alliance
of Independent Journalists and the International Federation of
Journalists.
Gontha, who is also the top executive of private pay
television provider PT Matahari Lintas Cakrawala, stressed that
Asia should urgently employ flexibility to compete on a global
basis, and that working together is necessary to serve the needs
among the firms.
He said that Asian broadcasting firms, for example, must
provide interconnection and access to the existing telephone
cable network and satellite technology.
Gontha, who controls Indovision -- one of Asia's largest
digital satellite television operators -- reminded seminar
participants that if the Asian firms miss the opportunity for
cooperation, they will have to follow the giant businesses from
the West.
He said that recently, the world's largest provider of
consumer online services, America Online (AOL), announced the
establishment of a joint venture company with Mitsui of Japan,
one of the world's international trading companies, and Nihon
Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), publisher of Japan's leading business
newspaper.
"The joint venture company, owned 50 percent by AOL, 40
percent by Mitsui and 10 percent by Nikkei, aims to offer an
interactive consumer service in Japan with a broad range of
localized Japanese language content. This means that the western
world is establishing itself in this part of the world, notably
Japan," Gontha said.
He said that Asia's open skies make it easy for any global
competitor to come into the market. "They have the advantage of
the name and recognition in other markets: something local
media/broadcasters do not enjoy." (icn)