CASBAA's TV Upfronts road show 2012 landed in Manila

CASBAA’s TV Upfronts road show 2012 landed in Manila on November 14 with a programme of dynamic Ad Sales presentations for agencies, clients and media. Produced in association with Campaign Asia-Pacific and in-market partner SkyCable, “The Philippines Screenings” followed similarly successful engagements in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

A showcase for leading pay-TV networks to screen their upcoming programming, “The Philippines Screenings” included presentations from BBC Worldwide, Discovery Networks Asia Pacific, History, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Turner Broadcasting.

The enthusiastic audience included agencies MediaCom, Mindshare, OMD, PHD, STARCOM, Maxus, MEC and ZenithOptimedia, along with audience data providers AGB Nielsen and Kantar Media. The range of clients ran from senior buyers from Samsonite to P&G Philippines.

According to Eugenio Lopez III, the Chairman of SkyCable, “the upscale consumer is one of the most difficult to reach and engage. Cable TV allows for the regularity of reaching this young, affluent, urban audience. Brands that are premium in nature, or that seek to create aspirational imagery, need to reach out to this segment of the market. Companies that do business with upscale consumers should recognize the power of the platform.”

''The presentations were very helpful in informing us on trends, upcoming shows, network capabilities, etc. and were conducted in a fun/cool way. They were also very good thought-starters for our campaigns in 2013,” said Pico M. Roberto Jr., Deputy Managing Director, MediaCom.  “The event did a great job at informing the audience of what's new in pay TV,” added Liam B. Capati, Media Director, MediaVest.

Maylene Espera-Nerona, a Media Planner for Maxus also found “the data presented by each of the speakers gave us an insight on how multichannel TV can help us build a relationship with our client’s target audience.”

“The Philippines has incredible growth potential,” said Christopher Slaughter, CEO, CASBAA. “The multichannel TV market is expected to benefit from economic development in the coming years, attracting more advertisers looking to target an economically advancing population.”

The Philippines is a historically robust TV market with a well-established appetite for international programming as well as local content. With approximately 7.6 million television homes in the country’s urban areas, Metro Manila accounts for nearly half of TV households, where TV penetration exceeds 95%.

“The growth potential of the pay-TV market is extremely favourable especially as multichannel TV digitizes and offers services beyond simply a greater choice of content but also high-definition programming and interactive services,” said Slaughter.