New Report Examines the Convergence Market Across 28 Asian Countries.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c77058) has announced the addition of 2007 Asia Convergence Market Reports to their offering.

The 2007 Asia Convergence Reports contain over 260 pages of research and analysis on the Digital Media and Convergence Markets in Asia. This research covers 28 Asian countries, grouped by geographic regions (Central, North, South and South East) and includes:

- Convergence and regulatory issues

- Convergence and infrastructure

- Broadband TV (IPTV)

- TV over DSL/IPTV

- Video-on-Demand (VoD)

- Interactive TV (iTV)

- Triple-play networks

This Asia market report covers 27 economies in the Asia region. It takes an overall look at the various telecoms markets, together with a particular look at the digital media and the phenomenon of convergence in these economies.

Throughout most of North Asia, there has been an increasing interest in exploiting the potential synergies between the traditionally separate industries of broadcasting and telecommunications. The push towards convergence, using common infrastructure and architecture has gained more momentum with the huge improvements in technology.

Highlights of this convergence push in the individual North Asia markets include:

China

China has built a substantial nation-wide telecommunications infrastructure with fibre optic cable networks covering the country.

Encouraged by government policy to find cost-effective communication solutions, China has become the world's biggest user of VoIP services.

Convergence in China is clouded by the ongoing struggle between the country's two regulators.

The protagonists are the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), which oversees the cable TV industry, and the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), which oversees Internet and other telecom regulations.

The big telecom operators in China are starting to gear up for IPTV. On the back of a booming broadband market in the country, it was expected that China could see its IPTV user base exceed 500,000 by end-2007

Hong Kong 

Hong Kong is well positioned to pursue the convergence of platforms and services for the benefit of consumers.

Consistent with its status as one of the leading telecommunications economies in the world, Hong Kong has built itself world-class infrastructure.

Digitalised since 1995, the Special Administrative Region (SAR) has been wired with almost 400,000km of optical fibre, with the vast majority of households covered by this extensive broadband network.

Hong Kong is also a key regional telecommunications hub and as such is the landing point for a significant number of strategically important submarine cables.

Local operators have been busy exploiting the opportunities for convergence, with three operators in particular - PCCW, HKBN and i-Cable - leading the way.

Japan

Japan was an early adopter of convergent technology models: way back in 2000 it was moving in this direction; along with South Korea, Japan has made significant progress down this path.

With its sophisticated infrastructure, Japan's telecoms sector has been one of the most active markets in the world in pursuing convergence.

The development of local infrastructure in Japan has been dominated by the government's push to have incumbent NTT open up access to the 'last mile'.

Although there has been a considerable uptake of broadband Internet services, the market reaction to IPTV has been surprisingly muted coming into 2007.

North Korea

Telecommunications in North Korea is seriously impeded by a combination of its generally poor economic state and the government's widespread repression of communication. The number of fixed-lines and the volume of voice traffic in North Korea has remained minuscule compared with South Korea. Because of its mountainous landscape and the high cost of building fixed-line networks, a mobile telephone network was considered a much more viable option. The country established a joint venture with a Thailand-based company to set up a mobile service in a special economic zone in north eastern North Korea. North Korea remains the only country in the world that has yet to adopt the Internet for public usage. North Korea's obsession with secrecy has made it extremely difficult to get a clear picture of the country's telecom sector.

The highlights in the individual markets of South and South East Asia include:

Afghanistan

As the political and social rebuilding of Afghanistan proceeds somewhat fitfully following years of war and civil unrest, the country has started putting a new national telecommunications infrastructure in place. An important step in the rebuilding was the creation of the Ministry of Communications by the Transitional Government in 2002.

The big challenge has been to attract and manage foreign investment in the country. There have been some positive signs in this regard, but there remains much work to be done. We have managed to put together some information of the country's broadcasting sector and what limited information we have has been included.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh's television households are served by more than 100 terrestrial broadcasters, two satellite broadcasters and 2,000 cable operators. Cable TV was first introduced in 1993 and experienced double-digit growth throughout the 1990s. The industry began migrating towards the MSOs service with single head-ends. HFC cable had also started to be rolled out with value-added services such as Internet and telephony provided over the cable. The government has been actively considering introducing a Broadcasting Bill to regulate the industry.

India

The TV broadcasting industry has been flourishing in India. Since television was first introduced in India in 1959, the country has emerged as one of the largest TV markets in the world. Television is estimated to reach more than 50% of all individuals (urban and rural) in India. In the last decade the television programming landscape has also been totally transformed. Doordarshan, the Indian National Television Network and established in 1959, reaches more than 90% of the country's population. The type of expansion witnessed in the broadcasting sector over the last decade was expected to continue. Convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications is in its early stages. BSNL launched its first triple-play voice, broadband and TV service in Pune in late 2006.

Malaysia

With its history of tight censorship laws, Malaysia did not open up the television broadcasting market to private operators until 1995. Despite this, the proportion of Malaysian households that has a television set had risen to almost 90% of all households. There were six FTA TV channels and more than 100 pay TV channels offering a wide range of local and foreign programs in a broad selection of languages. Of particular note has been the recent strong growth of satellite TV operator, Astro. This report reviews the development of the television broadcasting sector, as the market starts to move forward to meet the challenges that new technology is bringing the sector.

Singapore

For some years, Singapore's TV broadcasting sector has been feeling the push towards convergence. The Ministry of Information and the Arts announced the liberalisation of the media industry in Singapore in 2000, immediately signalling that broadcasting operators could look at the telecommunications sector and telecommunications companies could look at the broadcasting sector. A new regulator for the sector, the Media Development Authority, was set up in 2003. There is no doubt that a slower Singapore economy put some downward pressure on growth in the media sector. This report looks at the changes in the digital media market and the impact on the major players and customers.

Thailand

The TV broadcasting industry in Thailand had to wait a long time for the proposed new broadcasting regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), to be put in place. The government had become seriously bogged down in the process of setting up the regulator, a key element in the Broadcasting Frequencies Act of January 2000. While the country already has a competitive open market, there were numerous issues to be addressed as operators continue to struggle. Issues of convergence with the telecom sector also need attention, involving coordination between the NBC and the National Telecommunication Commission. In early 2007, the government was considering the merging of the country's telecoms and broadcasting regulators.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c77058