The Asia Video Summit 2020 (AVS2020), an annual industry event held by Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA), wrapped up the year with optimism over better prospects for the industry in 2021 and call for more collaboration among the media players.
This year,
AVS2020 attracted over 1,000 delegates from the Asia-Pacific region. It
broadcasted a series of successful virtual events and webinars live from a
studio.
Day One of
the summit started with a macro-economic update from S&P Global Ratings’ Managing
Director and Chief Economist, Shaun Roache, who remained upbeat about the
economy and the potential of an early vaccine for Covid-19 could bring recovery
forward.
The way
people consume goods and services would also change fundamentally and would be
the key thing to watch over the next one to two years, said Roache, who also
drew the analogy of “a dimmer switch rather than a flick of the switch” for the
gradual resurrection of economic activity.
Annette Kunst, Regional MD, Southeast
Asia and New Zealand, Nielsen Media, during her session on The Fortunes of Free
TV, shared that as the myriad ways to access content
evolves in tandem with technological advancement, a fundamental shift is
observed in consumer viewing habits.
She said that
while more broadcasters embrace new business model in streaming, the old adage
of 'Content is King' continues to ring true. With local content being the key
connectors to audiences and driving viewership in South-east Asia,
collaboration becomes a key enabler between content providers and producers.
However, the
title for “queen” remains contested by the panellists throughout the three-day
summit. According to Ivy Wong, CEO of VS Media, “the community is the Queen”.
This sentiment was also shared by Agnes Rozario, Director of Content, ASTRO, in
her panel on Content Cravings. Rozario highlighted the need to produce content
that is relevant and close to the hearts of their viewers through data mining
and analytics, to inform decision-making on the content piece and to put
consumers first in order to engage them.
All in all, in
spite of all the innovation, technology and data at hand, Tom Keaveny, Chief Innovation
& Information Officer, beIN Media Group, summed it up well in his panel:
“It’s not old media or new media … it needs to be all media. Great content …
will always find its value, and the ones who can curate it, treat it, market it
and price it the best, will be the ultimate winners.”