HyppTV goes for bigger market share

Telekom Malaysia Bhd’s (TM) Internet protocol television (IPTV) service HyppTV, which is fast becoming more significant part of the group, is upping the ante to grab a larger market share.

Executive vice-president of new media Jeremy Kung tells StarBizWeek that HyppTV is currently the country’s fastest growing IPTV where over 550,000 UniFi customers nationwide can automatically enjoy our HyppTV service. HyppTV is bundled as part of its UniFi triple-play services, which comprises video, Internet and phone.

“The latest offerings – HyppTV Over Broadband and HyppTV Everywhere – are extensions of the readily available HyppTV service onto the existing infrastructure of Streamyx and UniFi,” Kung says, adding that the investment was “minimal” as it leverages on its existing infrastructure.

TM started first phase of commercial trials involving 1,000 existing Streamyx 8 Mbps subscribers and expects trials to complete by the end of June. That is in line with its target to commercially launch that service in the third quarter of this year.

Kung says it would be conducting regular surveys among trial-users to gauge their feedback on the experience in using the service for further improvements to ensure an enhanced user experience once the services are launched.

UniFi subscribers

“For HyppTV, we are extending the service, which previously can only be enjoyed by our UniFi subscribers, to areas not covered by our high speed broadband (HSBB) network via our Streamyx broadband service to enable more Malaysians to experience the exciting content and superb quality of HyppTV.

“As for HyppTV Everywhere, once the service is commercially launched, it will be available as an add-on service to all TM’s Broadband customers, regardless UniFi or Streamyx with HyppTV service included in their subscription to view HyppTV content on multiple platforms such as smartphones, tablets, PC or laptops,” Kung explains.

On the current take-up rate of HyppTV’s other channel offerings, Kung notes that the response has been “very encouraging” with regard to the consumption of video-on-demand (VOD). The number of VOD subscribers on HyppTV has grown organically as the UniFi subscriber base increases.

“We currently have more than 1,500 hours of VOD available to subscribers. This includes 250 hours of the latest movie titles updated monthly on our platform,” Kung says.

He explains that the increase in take-up rate was due to the fact that movies titles are available within three months after their cinema release, coupled with good marketing strategies and a wide range of movies from its library.

Kung says contributions from HyppTV are blended in UniFi’s contributions to group revenue. For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2012, TM’s Internet and data business contributed some 46% of TM’s revenue.

Additionally, Kung says TM has been constantly exploring other initiatives that will enhance its customer service experience and continue to build a portfolio of attractive content.

Recently, HyppTV introduced three new packages. The packages bundle Sports, Entertainment, Asian and Edutainment channels as HyppTV Mega Pack, HyppTV Sports Pack and HyppTV Platinum Pack, in addition to the HyppTV Ruby Pack which has been launched in January this year.

“HyppTV content has grown by leaps and bounds and is currently the fastest growing pay-TV service in the country. When we launched the service in March 2010, HyppTV started with just 22 channels and have grown to 112 channels with 28 channels in High Definition (HD) – comprising 25 free-to-air channels including 8 radio channels, 48 premium channels, 19 VOD genres and 20 interactive channels,” Kung says.

On competition, he says the group “welcomes competition” as it fosters more innovative services and the ultimate beneficiary will be the end-users.

“We welcome all new IPTV providers that will offer a wider selection of entertainment choice to Malaysians. We aim to provide the best for Malaysians. In differentiating ourselves against the competition, TM is definitely looking at all options right now. One interesting position where we can put ourselves in right now is to make TM an aggregator of aggregators, which is very much in line with what we do in HSBB – be an infrastructure provider to other service providers as well,” he adds.

When TM embarked on the HyppTV journey, Kung says its main challenge was facing the incumbent pay-TV operator in the country that has exclusive rights for more than 100 premium channels as well as a much bigger marketing and content budget. “We overcame the challenges by having focused penetration strategy which was to bundle HyppTV as part of TM’s UniFi high speed broadband triple play offering.”

Kung also points out that due to the open nature of HSBB, other broadband providers are also its customers and competitors.

“Via our wholesale business arrangement in which TM provides HSBB (access) and HSBB (transmission) services, they became our wholesale customers but at the same time, we compete in the retail market. This makes for not only healthy competition in the market but also for healthy industry development with the increase in collaborations among service providers.”