The Coming Week in Asia: Waiting on the Cable Guy
TOKYO -- For the average Japanese television fan, keeping up with popular U.S. prime time dramas like
NYPD Blue
,
The X-Files
or even
ER
is a royal pain. Unlike U.S. viewers who can tune into Japan's bizarre hit cooking show
The Iron Chef
by clicking onto the
Food Network
, fans of international shows must fork over 300 yen ($2.84) just to watch a few episodes.
The money goes into the pocket of video rental stores. Because Japan's cable industry is so fragmented, with small local stations only carrying limited programs, if you want to watch international shows, you have to see them on video. If the neighborhood bar doesn't carry satellite, viewers who are aching to watch the next 30-second
Mike Tyson
fight are simply out of luck.
This will all change over the next few years as competition in the domestic cable market heats up after the merger this fall of
Jupiter Telecommunications
and
Titus Communications
, two of Japan's largest cable TV operators. With only 20% of the nation's population hooked up to cable TV, the merged company is looking to gobble up some of the remaining 700 or so smaller, local cable TV stations and to provide much wider content. Company officials, who announced the deal this past week, also said they were thinking of taking the merged company public.
This is great news for all of the die-hard
X-Files
fans, but the underlying reason why Japan is going cable is not Scully, but the Internet. Cable operators like Jupiter basically want to turn the existing cable networks, which usually only transmit regular TV programs, into an interactive-data line that also comes with high-speed Internet access.
And it won't just be the owners of Jupiter, which include general traders
Sumitomo
and
Itochu
(ITOCY)
, electronic goods manufacturer
Toshiba
, the U.S.'s
Liberty Media
(LMG)
and
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
, that will reap the benefits when the cable industry matures.
"The Jupiter-Titus merger will encourage the industry to consolidate and that should generate a significant market for fiber optic and electronic-part makers" as firms start to upgrade or fix network systems, says Kota Nakako, analyst at
Warburg Dillon Read
.
Electronic-equipment manufacturers like
Sony
(SNE) - Get Report
,
Matsushita Electric Industrial
(MC) - Get Report
,
Hitachi
(HIT)
and
Pioneer
are also competing to sell digital satellite receivers to cable TV stations so viewers can get extra programming if they want. Utility
Kansai Electric Power
, railway operator
Tokyu
, and general trader
Tomen
are also building their own cable TV networks.
And as soon as cable goes national, game-maker
Sega Enterprises
(SEGNY)
is hoping its profits will increase as well. The firm already has signed a deal with 30 cable TV operators to peddle a special cable version of its
Dreamcast
game console to viewers.
And where there are winners, of course, there are losers. Telecom firms like
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone
(NTT)
,
DDI
, and
Japan Telecom
better start slashing Internet access charges -- which NTT has stubbornly refused to do so far -- or suffer losing their share of an expanding market. And in the worst-case scenario, where cable fever does not catch on, broadband content providers like
Softbank
,
Marubeni
and
Oki Electric
, three firms that are setting up new units, could also suffer.
"Japan has about three years to consolidate its cable industry. If it misses this deadline, then there is little future," cautioned Nakako.
And sadly for the screaming female Japanese fans, that also means they won't get see
Rick(y) Schroder
at the flick of a switch.
