Malaysian media giant grasps for
Internet By Anil Netto
PENANG - The media battle for Malaysian
hearts and minds, pitting the
government-controlled print and electronic media
against critical Internet websites and blogs, is
heating up in the runup to general elections. Now,
Malaysia's largest private media conglomerate,
Media Prima, has unveiled big investment plans to
generate Internet content, a revenue
diversification strategy aimed at getting a larger
slice of the growing online advertising pie.
At the same time, some analysts view the
company's plans as a veiled attempt to erode the
present influence and reach of
independent Internet-based
news providers. Media Prima is believed to be
closely linked to the dominant ruling political
party, the United Malays National Organization
(UMNO). The company is also highly profitable: in
November, Media Prima announced "exceptional"
financial results for the nine months ending in
September, with profit before tax climbing 98%
from a year earlier to 101.8 million ringgits
(US$30.2 million).
Those revenues are
generated partially through its control of all
four private free-to-air television networks -
TV3, ntv7, 8TV and TV9 - through which it has
seized 54% of Malaysia’s television audience, up
from 47% last year. Its main competitors,
satellite pay-TV group Astro and state-owned RTM,
command 29% and 17% respectively, giving Media
Prima large sway over the local television
market’s advertisement pricing.
Malaysia's
mainstream television news - apart from
al-Jazeera's news bulletins, which are relayed
over Astro and sometimes includes news on Malaysia
- in the main reflect favorably on UMNO
politicians and government policies, while
opposition and dissident groups receive little if
any coverage. Media Prima also owns the New
Straits Times group, which owns the country’s
top-selling Malay-language newspaper, Harian
Metro, and the English-language pro-government New
Straits Times.
Having recently acquired
all of Malaysia's main private television
stations, the company is turning its attention and
finance to the Internet in a bid to cash in on
expanding online ad revenue and diversify its
revenue sources. Media Prima will compete for
viewers and readers with a number of small but
nifty operators, some of which have garnered huge
readerships. Those include Malaysia Today and
Malaysiakini, both of which receive tens of
thousands of daily visitors and have on occasion
faced harassment from government authorities.
Independent news websites and blogs have
enjoyed a surge in popularity on the back of two
huge demonstrations and retaliatory government
crackdowns in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, which the
mainstream media arguably failed to report
accurately or adequately. The first protest, which
on November 10 called for wide-ranging electoral
reforms, was downplayed in the mainstream media,
apparently in hope that it was just a blip on the
political landscape.
In contrast, news of
the second rally, where protestors called for an
end to the marginalization of the minority ethnic
Indian community, was splashed on the front pages
of the pro-government newspapers with aspersions
cast on the organizers' intentions while damage to
property and injuries to a few police personnel
was played up.
It was left to al-Jazeera
and independent websites and blogs to report what
really transpired on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
Al-Jazeera's on-the-spot reporting of heavy-handed
police action against one section of peaceful
demonstrators ran counter to government assertions
that the police had acted with the utmost
restraint. At one stage, the television station
ran footage of the police using water cannons even
as a cabinet minister was insisting that the
police had reacted reasonably.
Many
independent news providers posted al-Jazeera's
news coverage onto their blogs and websites, while
others offered up scathing commentary about the
government's excessive use of force against the
protestors. The mainstream media now arguably
faces its most serious credibility crisis to date,
more so even than when news blackouts were imposed
on the pivotal reformasi protests of 1998.
Receding thought control With
increasing numbers of Malaysians wired to the
Internet, the government's once tight control over
the traditional media - television, radio and the
newspapers – is now unable to mold and control
popular perceptions as it could in the past.
That would seem to make Media Prima’s
Internet plans all the more crucial from the
government's perspective. It's also crucial to the
company’s long term profitability. Print media ad
revenue is gradually sliding, with its share of
total advertising falling to 59% from 63% in 2002.
"We have seen proof of how online revenue has
become big in other countries, and even there
things are still pretty much at the infant stage
right now," Media Prima group managing director
Abdul Rahman Ahmad said in an interview last month
with the business weekly The Edge.
In its
bid to diversify its income revenue, Media Prima
says it plans to focus on entertainment programs -
not just reruns of shows already screened on
television, but original content produced solely
for the Internet. The commercial challenge will be
to get a small portion of its existing viewers to
pay a small monthly fee for online content using a
subscription-based or pay-per-download model.
Media Prima might also move to sell movies, games
and music on-line, say analysts.
The
company is clearly banking on state-owned Telekom
Malaysia to invest in up to 13 billion ringgits
worth of infrastructure for high-speed broadband
in selected urban areas and 56 billion ringgits
for the whole country under the telecom
conglomerate's "fiber-to-the-home" and
"fiber-to-the-curb" initiatives. The current
broadband penetration rate in Malaysia is less
than 5%.
Moreover, Media Prima is
reportedly making plans to boost its online news
presence. It already has major news websites for
each of its three main newspapers - the Malay
language Berita Harian and Harian Metro and the
New Straits Times. Popular independent and
critical websites such as Malaysia Today and
Malaysiakini, however, have already surpassed the
New Straits Times' current Internet reach.
Over the past couple of weeks, they have
also closed in on Harian Metro website's large
readership, judging by comparison charts generated
on Alexa.com. These independent websites operate
at only a fraction of the resources available to
established newspaper organizations and it's not
clear that by dedicating even more resources
exclusively for Internet content that Media Prima
will make inroads into the alternative news market
without a critical shift to how its news is
gathered and presented.
Given the
popularity of alternative news and alternative
sources of information, media analyst Mustafa K
Anuar predicts that Media Prima will try to tap
into this market by offering a package of news and
information to Internet users in the hope that it
could wean a section of them away from the
critical websites and blogs.
"Its
entertainment wing can also play a potential role
in helping to divert the attention of the general
public away from the social-political websites and
blogs," said Mustafa. But, he adds, it won't be
easy for government-linked Media Prima to win over
the hearts and minds of already discerning
Internet news hounds, particularly if the kind of
news and information provided remains "as bland
and unbalanced, if not distorted, as the ones that
are available on the group's stable of
newspapers".
Zaharom Nain, an academic who
has researched media ownership structures, agrees:
"If they are going to come up with the same type
of news that they show on television, they are not
about to challenge the alternative voices out
there; nor will they be able to attract more
people."
They will probably only attract
the same young people that are attracted to the
entertainment "fluff" on their television
stations, he added. "In terms of mounting a
challenge to the social political media already on
the Internet, it is fairly unlikely they will
succeed."
Anil Netto is a
Penang-based writer.
(Copyright 2007
Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road,
Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
