TV sets rule in Jakarta and Manila, but smartphones have become the main viewing screen for viewers in Bangkok, according to Media Partners Asia’s (MPA) new consumer insights survey results across greater Bangkok, greater Jakarta and metro Manila.

About 11% of Indonesian viewers still watch TV via old-style CRT sets, and only 4% use mobile as their primary viewing device, MPA says.

In contrast, 50% of consumers in Manila and 84% in Bangkok watch TV on their smartphones. “In greater Bangkok, people spend a lot more time on the BTS and in public transport and therefore a lot of the consumption is happening on phones,” says MPA vice president Aravind Venugopal.

Daily viewing of two to three hours is similar in the three markets. Another constant across Manila and Jakarta is the percentage of consumers who subscribe to pay-TV – 71% in Manila, 75% in Jakarta. The number is much lower – 35% – in Bangkok. While 4% of Bangkok respondents have had pay-TV at some point and unsubscribed, the majority had never subscribed to pay-TV. A slightly higher 7% in Manila once had but have now dropped pay-TV services.

In all three urban centres, the top 10 channels preferences included a mix of pay-TV and free-to-air. English-language channels were more prevalent across the top 10 channels in Manila than elsewhere. Venugopal attributes this to Manila’s more cosmopolitan population.

Consumers in the three centres repeated the same main value propositions considered in buying pay-TV: programming variety, affordability, customer service. “Customer service is something that operators need to focus on a lot more rather than paying lip service to... I think that’s something that’s probably one of the big takeaways in all three markets.”

This article first appeared in ContentAsia Issue 4, 2015, published in September 2015