2023 was a year of high drama, with relationships all over the map, some wins & turnarounds, and a few decisions that mean the universe is changed forever. The question for 2024 is what this world might look like.

At the end of 2022, we put the channel/platform balance of power on our watchlist for 2023. In an inexplicable moment of restraint, we described the relationships as “evolving”. 10/10 for understatement on this one. 

2023 turned out to be a year of high drama, with linear relationships all over the map, some wins and turnarounds, and a few decisions that mean this world is never going to be even remotely the same, ever. 

The question for 2024 is the shape of the new world. Starting with the good stuff: the launch in 2024 of Hong Kong-based Chinese programmer, Celestial Tiger Entertainment’s (CTE) standalone app. The app expands CTE’s Chinese entertainment footprint from its long-held movie roots into the streaming space for the first time.

The strategy leverages CTE’s strong partnerships in the region as well as its strengths in curation, honed over the past 20 years in delivering Chinese movies to audiences in Asia. The app will carry movies from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan with some Singapore titles. Among these are edgier titles that cannot be streamed on linear channels.

There’s also Shitiz Jain’s Eazie TV, which has gathered about 75 linear channels with some on-demand access for a single price. The aim is to create a simple, easy-to-use, go-to space for consumers, as well as an entertainment platform that telcos can bundle with mobile/broadband services. Eazie TV launched in Singapore in August 2023, and rollouts are in discussion across the region.       

But that came later. For linear channels and platforms, the year didn’t begin so well. Exactly six weeks in, on Valentine’s Day 2023, Hong Kong’s i-Cable – one of pioneers in the business – said it was killing its 30-year-old pay-TV platform. The decision pulled the rug out from under approx 180 linear channels that had called i-Cable home for like ever.  

i-Cable cited Hong Kong’s “rapidly changing media landscape” along with “fierce competition among global pay-TV content providers and pay-TV operators” as reasons for the decision. Detractors said i-Cable had long taken its eye off the cable-TV ball. By 1 June, the service went dark. i-Cable’s decision was described by regional channel programmers as “the end of an era” and a “big set-back” for Asia’s pay-TV ecosystem. 

2023 was also the year Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), KC Global Media and sports network beIN finally got fed up enough with not being paid in Indonesia to make a call.  

In May 2023, WBD pulled its bouquet of 14 channels off Indonesia’s largest platform, MNC, ending decades-long affiliate arrangements. The dramatic decision involved channels from HBO and Cartoon Network to Discovery and TLC, all of which went dark on 12 May. WBD’s move followed a decision in November 2022 by Qatari sports network beIN to exit MNC.  

Regional channels operator, KC Global Media, followed mid-2023, pulling its services off Indonesian pay-TV platform, Transvision, citing ongoing payment failures. The channels – including AXN, which is among Asia’s most popular brands, and anime channel Animax – went dark at midnight on 12 July.

The darkness continued. In August, a total of 16 channels from multiple suppliers exited Singapore platform Singtel TV from 1 October – 12 as a result of “low viewership” and another four due to Disney’s decision to shutter its linear services. The mass exodus included a few Discovery channels, some from Warner, and a few Love Nature channels as well as two NDTV Indian channels. At the same time, Singtel picked up Rock Entertainment’s Rock Action, showing that its pull back from video entertainment is not as complete as some fear. 

There were other shifts here and there as distribution agreements were renewed (or not) and platforms adjusted their strategies and offerings. These showed ongoing confidence in the traditional pay-TV space. 

In Malaysia, WBD dismantled years of HBO exclusivity in a September deal with Telekom Malaysia’s Unifi TV, which is now carrying nine channels + on-demand platform HBO Go. 

As Disney continued to disappear the old Fox/Star channels in Asia, Philippines’ pay-TV platform Cignal filled the gap from October 2023 with, among others, Rewind Networks’ Hits Now, which launched in February 2023. 

Also in Singapore, StarHub welcomed two Warner Bros Discovery channels – Discovery and HGTV – back onto the platform in October, five years after the 2018 high-profile bustup that saw seven Discovery channels and three of the old Scripps channels go dark.  

The love started much earlier in the year. In May, WBD said HBO channels were returning to Singtel-affiliated Thai telco, AIS, for the first time in three years, joining other WBD channels in an expanded carriage deal. The new agreement followed years of musical chairs for HBO, which jumped from True to AIS to Triple T/3BB and now back to AIS.

By many accounts, pay-TV affiliate fees continue to be squeezed as traditional platforms struggle to hold onto subscribers. Meanwhile, “transformation” is the holy grail.
This is playing out in a rush to aggregate video streaming apps. Commercial terms of these deals aren’t being disclosed. From the outside though, what they’re doing pretty much looks like pay-TV 2.0, rather than a radical new world.

▶ Published in ContentAsia December 2023 magazine