TM gears up for healthy competition

Malaysia - The pay-TV business in Malaysia is seeing more players entering the market, heating up the competition to win the hearts of viewers.While it takes this as healthy competition, Telekom Malaysia (TM) is one that has plans to up the ante with more consumer campaigns in gaining subscribers and pushing the awareness of its Hypp TV service.Since Hypp TV's launch in March 2010, it has 460,000 subscribers today, positioning the service through a bundled triple-play, offering voice, broadband and TV as a full suite.According to Jeremy Kung (pictured), EVP of new media and CEO of TM Net, it has been leveraging more on putting its UniFi service on the forefront.More recently, the brand launched new UniFi packages and enhancements with the Hypp TV offering for Malaysian SMEs, a first for the service."We were getting requests from cafe and boutique owners who wanted the TV service as part of a value-add for them," said Kung.The brand has been going more into online portals, social networks and TVCs in marketing their suite of products, apart from monthly events with consumers."Hypp TV is in the market, but we want to market the brand more. Awareness is low and many still don't know about its availability," said Kung.He explains the Hypp TV brand has been riding on UniFi consumer campaigns and events with the TV service playing second fiddle, something they hope to change in the coming year.But in staying relevant to consumers moving forward and with much competition from new and existing players, Kung says that its service and content sets it apart."I think it's healthy competition and there is always space for more than one player. Besides making the industry healthier, it offers more choice for consumers at the end of the day," said Kung.Kung boasts of TM looking into content that has never been seen before by the local market to set itself apart from other players.It became the first to bring Warner TV to the region and introduce a full channel on football, called MUTV."We also have other platforms within the Hypp TV service to cater to different audiences, including video-on-demand and applications on the Interactive channel," he adds.Over the past year, it has been working on getting more applications on the free channel, including Facebook, YouTube, Flight info, Info Traffic, Dictionary.com and many others.Kung says that while it has the content to reach out to the mass market, it is targeting more specific campaigns to drive awareness in the coming year, and the development of the Hypp TV service to suit Smart TVs in the next two to three years.