01 Dec 17 DAY 3
FEATURE
MAKING IT MONGOLIA A range of opportunities for content
The nation’s rapid TV industry spurt denotes that viewers are hungry for more content. Such has prompted the more local players like Royal HD Channel to travel beyond its borders in search of international players. “Our goal is to promote more friendly cooperation with foreign organizations,” said Tamir Erdenebaatar, Director of Royal HD Channel. While the Royal HD Channel has traditionally focused on education, culture and the general development sectors, they are at ATF to expand their horizons. “I would like to participate more in the animation space,” Tamir offered, giving a peek into future developments. To date, the channel is in 21 provinces in Mongolia, including Ulaanbaatar city.
For those who know the ins and outs of the M&E industry in Mongolia, they’d tell you that it is one of the most competitive and fragmented of landscapes. There are over 150 networks and cable channels for a population of 3 million. Its video content segment is growing, albeit at a moderated speed, despite having a rather late start.
We believe that our news, which is the ‘Image of Mongolia’, can bring grater reality to the audience. Recently, TV shows like home shopping have become very popular in Mongolia. As well, family shows continue to be the perfect genre for the time-honoured TV, keeping people glued to the traditional medium more than anything else.”
BUYER
– Tamir Erdenebaatar, Director, Royal HD Channel
Mongol TV has become the market leader in content production and trend setting. Our team has gained vast amount of experience from producing large international formats, and this has increased our overall production quality and standard for our entire TV station.” – Nomin Chinbat, CEO, Mongol TV
Mongol TV, one of the top 3 most-viewed networks with almost 25% market share in Mongolia, has been busy trying to fix some of these issues, while also maintaining its market leader standing. “Mongol TV is fighting hard against copyright infringement by congregating industry players such as MIPPA (Mongolian Intellectual Property Protection Association) and MTF (Mongolian Television Forum) to create a platform for international content distributors and local stations to meet,” said Nomin Chinbat, CEO of Mongol TV. “Also, Mongol TV is developing its own SVOD video streaming platform, so we can pose greater value to content producers.”
While Doo Nee is currently #2 in terms of traction (web and app), our need to differentiate ourselves from the pan-regionals in Thailand will see new strategies emerging.” Joe Suteestarpon, Founder Mediaplex Group (Doo Nee)
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Fighting the Good Fight The landlocked unitary sovereign state in East Asia today continues to experience growing pains, the bigger two being copyright infringement and traditional standards that impede monetization from viewers. At the moment, over 90% of both Mongol TV and Royal HD Channel’s revenue are advertisingbased.
At ATF, Mongol TV is looking to increase its locally-produced content by acquiring international formats that can be localised. However, while it will be focusing both on scripted and non-scripted formats, they are also open to considering new markets where they have yet to work with. “We are also looking into co-production possibilities,” Nomin continued.
We’ve already been an active buyer of Japanese content, and we are also exploring more with partners from other countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. We’d love to see more possibilities here.” In fact, investment or co-development is something Bilibili is considering and even trying out step by step right now.” Shuyao Fang, Manager, International Acquisitions, Shanghai Hode Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Bilibili)