www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com
By Johan Ishak
TELEVISION, or better known as TV, is probably the most influential media ever created by mankind. Many would think that the internet should get that credit but little do we realise that the internet has only been made commercialised over the last 3 decades, whereas TV has been around at least since the early of last century.
I am from the Generation X. We grew up with a set schedule in our heads ensuring us to complete our dinner before 9.00 pm so that we can watch Battlestar Galactica, The A Team, Knight Rider, Mission Impossible (the original) or even stayed up late to accompany our moms to watch Dallas, Knots Landing or even Solid Gold (yeahh! I know - what a cheeky lil boy I was).
The cartoon shows at 6.30 pm used to act as a biological clock in our heads to call us back into our homes after a football or rounders match by the street side. For the Muslims, we got free "mengaji" (Quran reading) tuition from Muqaddam. We even learnt to be compassionate from a syndicated foreign series from Japan called Oshin. The list goes on and on and the best part is, we cherished those moments quite sweetly even without the speed, mobility or edginess of the internet.
Now at an age I shall not disclose, but fairly seasoned, I am given the opportunity to manage not 1, but 4 TV stations, namely TV3, TV9, 8TV and ntv7. On top of that, I have an internet Video-on-Demand (VOD) platform to go with it called tonton.com.my. At this very opportune moment, I take pride in doing all I can to restore the glory of TV alongside the internet. I believe TV is here to stay for a longer time, if not forever. Once people believe that the invention of TV would mean the demise of radio, but it proved to be wrong. So I shall hope that the invention of internet will not kill TV.
The practice of freedom of journalism has allowed us to embrace impartiality. This, coupled with the speed that is powered by the internet as well as professionalism in delivering accurate news have given us a reward quite pleasantly. We are happy that for the month of May 2018, all of our news programmes cumulated over 400 million views by 17 million viewers giving an average of 23 times per person. 17 million covers 81% of the Malaysian TV audience across 7 million TV households.
Some may say that I am biased simply because I manage these TV channels. Perhaps, but, surely statistics from a third party international independent professional consultant and researcher such as Nielsen has to carry significant weight. Of course it does. Nielsen reported that TV3 is the No. 1 channel in Malaysia achieving 30% of the Malay market audience whereas 8TV is the No. 1 Chinese channel hitting 32% of the Chinese market audience. All stations sum up to Media Prima's impressive 35% overall market share.
For advertisers, particularly those who are hungry to feed their potential consumers, an RM1 is hypothetically split between the 4 stations in order to get a gigantic 35% coverage. This is certainly a lot more efficient compared to spreading RM1 across 100 other channels. It is simple mathematics. Although many would embrace the digital advertising space, it is not yet the time to put all of your bets on a single colour on the Roulette table. Put on both Red and Black. After all, the mass market who is still watching TV is the largest pool of consumers who will be drinking your malt drink, eat your instant noodle, apply your shampoo or even learn about products that are distributed via internet sites.
When a simple survey is done, we uncovered that the TV content in Malaysia has a strong mass viewership stickiness. This is true particularly with the favourite drama slots such as Akasia, Dahlia, Samarinda, Lestary, Zehra, Iris and Cerekarama. These drama programmes can go up to 4 million viewership reach. If a decade ago the country was stormed by an unprecedented drama series called Nur Kasih, a decade later now, a new series, Nur, is making its round of fame. This nicely scripted drama with strong casting and cinematography now soars proudly especially when it involves a taboo subject of an Ustaz marrying a prostitute (enough said).
The same can be said about documentary shows such as 999 and Majalah 3 that can each garner similar ratings. Our own animation intellectual property, Ejen Ali, is the No. 1 most watched kids show on TV and even our late night show, The Sherry Show, garnered 1 million viewers. To date, most of the weeks in a year reveal that the Top 10 programmes watched on TV are from TV3 at a combined unique viewers of 18 million TV audience which represents 86% of the Malaysian TV audience.
To top the black forrest with a sweet cherry, Malaysia's No. 1 entertainment award show, Anugerah Juara Lagu (AJL), saw a phenomenal average viewership of 3.8 million in its 32nd edition in February 2018. This has a tail effect of 20 million digital views when AJL was democratised as free content on YouTube. The winning vocalists, Syamel and Ernie Zakri, record a cumulative 8 million views that is still growing today.
To cut a long story short, these statistics do not lie. They are meaningful. To synergize its (TV viewership) power with the energy from digital activation is to slow cook a Briyani with a lamb shank in the pot of Basmathi rice. Don't just eat the Briyani rice without the lamb or don't just eat the lamb without the Briyani rice. Eat together. After all, my doctor did advise me that we must not eat protein alone. We must combine it with some carbohidrate. In this case, take both TV and digital. I promise you that you will not be disappointed. Long live TV.
* kopihangtuah
| mcmlxxv:viii:xxix |
0 comments:
Post a Comment