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Hunan Satellite TV Taps into Game SectorHUNAN, Oct 22, 2009 (SinoCast Daily Business Beat via COMTEX) -- Hunan Satellite TV, a satellite TV station in China's Hunan Province, is set to come up with a cyber game platform based on Hunantv.com, the official website of Hunan Satellite TV, anytime soon shortly after it kicked off a similar online fairyland for mobile phone users. Liu Chao, director at the online game department of Hunantv.com, says that from mobile to cyber games, Hunan Satellite TV will march into the game sector in full sail. China's cyber game market was valued at CNY6.9 billion in the second quarter of 2009, up 35.9% year on year, according to the latest numbers released by iResearch. Expected to grow at an annualized rate of 13.9% over the coming years, the market is luring 8mn to 10 million new game players each year. "The game industry is the most lucrative now, that is what Hunan Satellite TV is looking at," says the director. "China's cyber game market is potentially huge and it will grow into the biggest one in Asia. Though the competition here is fierce, Hunan Satellite TV has an edge over a big marketing and advertising tool, its satellite TV channel." On June 22, 2009, Hunan Satellite TV launched more than ten mobile phone games, which recorded hundreds of thousands of downloads within over ten days. Partnering with major cyber game vendors, Hunan Satellite TV is working on several new cyber games, which will help Hunantv.com find new paths to sales. Now the website is largely making money from copyright licensing, short messaging, and online advertising. It only sees millions in advertising income. The success of Hunan Satellite TV's game strategy hinges on how it will translate its vast TV audience into game players. As one of the most popular satellite TV channels in China, Hunan Satellite TV's audience has a strong purchasing power. The biggest challenge facing the company is lacking in experience operating online business. Integrated marketing is an inevitable trend, traditional media have to trade on it by building a cross-media advertising platform, according to an executive from the company. Hunan Satellite TV's future strategy shows that it has set a goal of building itself into the No. 1 online entertainment platform. Hunan Satellite TV is the satellite television network of its parent Chinese language broadcasting company Hunan Television. Unlike its parent company, Hunan Satellite TV also broadcasts to audience abroad. It was formed on January 1, 1997 by consolidating Hunan Television's satellite broadcasting assets. The network is based in Changsha, Hunan province. On May 20, 2009, the television network expanded its service to Hong Kong. (USD 1 = CNY 6.83) Source: www.hexun.com (October 22, 2009) |