We Are the Champions

By Johan Ishak

www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com

FREDDIE MERCURY, as played by Rami dude in Bohemian Rhapsody simply proves that anyone can emulate greatness. I thought this true about myself and what can be more indicative of a devine signal other than the meaning of my name, Johan, which means Champion in Bahasa Malaysia. To add, my youngest son's name is Emil, a french word that carries the meaning Emulate.

As I digest December 2018, my brain is already doing multimillion electrical neuron exchanges on what I expect 2019 will be. 2019, in my champion opinion, will bring us, Media Prima TV Networks, to a greater heights of Emulating Greatness.

What greatness are we talking about? The greatness of the world industry leaders for championing new ways of doing things. We are declaring ourselves to be the greatest TV network in the country not just because we hold the biggest audience share for TV viewership, but also for embracing digitalisation and consumerism in a profound manner.

If in 2018 we have Democratised Content, in 2019 we will Champion Content. If in 2018 we have Democratised TV Advertising, in 2019 we will Champion TV Advertising. If in 2018 we have Democratised TV Shopping, in 2019 we will Champion TV Shopping. If in 2018 we have Democratised Journalism, in 2019 we will Champion Journalism.

In December 2018, TV3, our crown jewel, was given the YouTube Gold Award for being one of the 16 YouTubers in Malaysia that had reached over 1 million subscribers. With 120 million video views monthly, there is nothing stopping us from rocketing to the sky as fuelled by awesome content. This is the real rocket fuel. 2019 is going to be a champion year for our digitalisation of content.

Advertising used to be the sum of many components such as TV + Digital. However, brewing in 2018, as a launching pad for what Advertising would be in 2019, we have synergised all angles of Advertising. For the first time, Lazada 11.11 had used TV3 as well as digital platforms to garner the volumes of e-commerce transactions to the point of critical congestion on both the e-commerce site as well as the partnering internet banking sites. 2019 will give us more opportunity to champion our clients' brand into our programming saga.

2 years ago we looked to the East and saw friends from another peninsula, and we thought, the 2 peninsulas should marry: wallah! the marriage between Media Prima TV Networks with CJ ENM. This Malaysian-Korean synergy gave birth to CJ Wow Shop. Already surpassing over 1 million buyers and ranking No.1 TV shopping program on TV, CJ Wow Shop shall grow further to expand its wings across the audience base with an expected 50% growth in 2019. For this, Ddu Du Ddu Du Dooooo, again, we will champion new experiences for shopping.

2018 marks the epitome transformation for the nation as its people showed their power in determining the fate of their country. This gave us the opportunity to uphold the sacred position journalism has on the lives of the people, so much so that our viewership in the month of the General Elections (i.e. May) garnered 400 million viewership for our news programs reflecting a frequency of an average of 23.5 times viewership by 17 million people out of the population of 32 million. As we bring this spirit to the dawn of 2019, we are set to champion as the No.1 news program in the country.

So in short, what will we, Media Prima TV Networks, expect to be in 2019? We will continue to be what we are now in 2018, that is, We Are The Champions.