3 September 2014: RTL CBS Entertainment turns 1, Malaysia's Astro has committed to 18,000 hours out of Pinewood Iskandar, and 73% of Taiwan's netizens admit to pirating and know it's wrong... plus other numbers making Asia's industry go round right now.

18,000...the number of hours Malaysian media company Astro has committed to making out Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios. In return, Astro gets an exclusive five-year deal to provide TV equipment and production services at the 50-acre facility backed by the Malaysian government’s investment arm, Kazanah. Astro produces about 9,000 hours of content a year in-house and commissions another 2,000 hours. The Pinewood Iskandar deal involves 4,500 hours a year for two years and another 3,000 hours a year for the next three years. To date, Astro has produced more than 50,000 hours of content in addition to two sports and news channels.

10%...The market for digital pay-TV in Asia Pacific will grow at a robust 10% a year between 2013 and 2018, new research from Media Partners Asia (MPA) shows. Digital pay-TV subs will grow from 312 million in 2013 to 503 million by 2018 and digital penetration of pay-TV homes expands from 62% to 83% over the same period. Much of this growth will be driven by digitisation in China and India, followed by Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam, MPA says. By 2023, digital pay-TV subs will expand to 599 million, a gain of 96 million over 2018. MPA also forecasts that the market for HD digital pay-TV will rise from 60 million subs in 2013 to 221 million by 2023. Total revenues from value-added-services will be US$7 billion in 2023.

RM600m... Malaysia’s creative industry is expected to contribute RM600 million/US$190 million in content export revenues this year, says the country’s communication and multimedia minister, Ahmad Shabery Cheek (pictured),speaking at the Pinewood Iskandar/Astro Productions signing ceremony.

ONE... Happy 1st birthday, RTL CBS Entertainment! The scheduling fairy at the top of this birthday cake is waving her wand over the day-and-date/first-and-exclusive telecast of Scorpion at 9pm on 23 Sept. Joining Scorpion’s nerdy think-tank solving mind-boggling national threats on the anniversary schedule are Under the Dome season 2 on 9 Sept, X Factor U.K. live via satellite (31 Aug, 1 Sept), and celeb news show The Insider, also within 24 hours of its U.S. telecast.

73%... the percentage of Taiwan’s netizens who admit to pirating movies/music – and know it’s wrong. According to a study by Syca- more Research earlier this year, 81% agree that piracy is wrong and 75% said more regulation was required to block streaming/downloads of pirate content. More than 75% of Taiwan’s population is online. Most time – 1.65 hours a day – is spent on social media. 1.45 hours are spent on search, with emailing third at 1.28 hours.

30%... The stake San Miguel Corp president and COO Ramon S. Ang is said to be taking in Philippines’ free-TV broadcaster GMA Network. Loads of rumours, but no confirmation by press time.

1.3b... Asia’s total internet users hit 1.27 billion – 31.7% penetration – at the end of 2013, InternetWorldStats’ latest figures show. Asia makes up 45.1% of the world’s internet users, but the region’s penetration rate is still the second lowest in the world after Africa (21.3%) and well below the global average of 39%. China has the highest number of internet users at 621 million, followed by India at 195 million.

Issue Three 2014