Brokers and investors will keep their money out of Hong Kong media stocks if the government fails to solve the rampant signal piracy in the pay-television industry, senior industry players have warned.
'Piracy is one of the reasons why we don't have the content and people in the investment that we deserve as a region,' said Simon Dewhurst, head of media investment banking at CLSA Asia Pacific Markets. He added that he did not think the government was 'getting the message yet'.
A study by CLSA and the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) estimated that companies in Hong Kong had lost US$14.63 million this year due to 44,500 households viewing pirated signals. It also found that a net US$685,800 was lost as 14,500 users illegally installed satellite dishes to receive cable signals. Casbaa chief executive Simon Twiston-Davies said the figures were conservative and could be 20 to 30 per cent higher.
The government had little incentive to push the criminalisation of the unlawful distribution of pay-television signals in commercial premises such as bars and restaurants, Mr Twiston-Davies said. 'We are horrified that the government is not taking our message on board,' he said.
I-Cable subscriber numbers stand at about 640,000 but pay-television penetration is as low as 30 per cent, compared with more than 80 per cent in Taiwan and the United States, due to the problem.
