content. We had no problem
acquiring content from Asian
countries at the time, just problems
acquiring from Western countries.
Nowadays the situation is much
improved.
What lessons have you learned
from setting up the network?
Looking back, I would have done
things the same way if I had to do
them again, given the situation we
had at the time. But if someone
were to start a channel these days,
it would be a lot easier. Somebody
could be starting out with no
restrictions on doing business in
Myanmar.
Did you think at the time that
things would improve?
We were optimistically hoping. But
there was no way of knowing for
sure. I would say we were very
lucky that the sanctions were being
lifted as our business took off.
What is the future of SkyNet?
We are expanding and are hoping
that we will expand more. The
biggest challenge we have is the
piracy problem in Myanmar. There
are a lot of pirate pay-TV dishes
and set top boxes available in
Myanmar. India and Thailand are
the worst problem. They are selling
these set top boxes very cheap and
they offer a lot of international
channels as well as a lot of
international sports events. When
there is an international sporting
event on, for example, it doesn’t
matter if it’s on an English language
channel or if it’s in their own
language. People just turn down
the audio and watch the action.
We had problems with the recent
World Cup. We had exclusive rights
to broadcast the World Cup, but
unfortunately there was a Thai TV
provider with a set top box which
carried the channels free to air. So
all 64 matches of the World Cup
were available for free in Myanmar
to anyone who made a one-time
purchase of that set top box.
How can you prevent and combat
such piracy?
There are a couple of ways, but
nothing has been very efficient so
far. It is true that our country needs
more regulations and tighter
control over distributing these
illegal set top boxes. At present
people can buy these set top boxes
quite freely and there’s not much
control so far. Our neighbouring
countries are taking advantage of
our lack of regulations.
So is it a matter of the Myanmar
government tightening up the
regulations?
Yes. Our country is on the way
towards democracy. There are so
many things the government needs
to be doing now, and they are
doing them as best they can. Our
democracy is very young at this
point. What is unfortunate is that
our neighbouring countries are
taking advantage of this situation. I
would hope they would enforce the
law on their own side. But our
government has so many things
they need to accomplish right now,
this is not their highest priority.
What about multi-screen delivery
and OTT content?
We do want OTT, but the problem
is that internet speed is quite slow
in Myanmar. So it’s difficult for us
to expand in that area. Also we
could offer VOD on our own
service, but the problem is that the
bandwidth requirement to do so
would be quite a lot. So we’re not
able to provide it right now.
In developing countries the
switchover to digital TV is a bigger
issue than merely swapping digital
for analogue…
Correct. The way that we distribute
is one-way communication through
satellite. If we used fibre
communication, two-way
communication, it would require
much higher bandwidth than we
have right now. One area that we
are looking at is fibre through FTTX
distribution, which I can see being
implemented in the future. But our
country, remember, is quite
mountainous, and the geographical
shape of our country is quite
elongated, so it’s not that easy to
lay out fibre across the whole
country. It will take some time to
do so.
Thank you, Win Naing.
Starting a
channel
would be a
lot easier
today
“
”
THE CHANNEL
|
ISSUE 2 2014
|
29
Top left Win
Naing
Top right SkyNet
at a Yangon
electronics fair
Right The blue
dishes of SkyNet
have become
increasingly
popular
DIGITAL MIGRATION
|
THE CHANNEL
