Chinese TV networks plan ASEAN alliance

Bangkok-based Dongmeng Television is hoping to form an alliance of all of the Chinese-language TV stations in Southeast Asian countries.

Through the alliance, the stations could share resources such as jointly purchased copyrights and adopt digital and Internet-based technologies, said He Jiang, director of Dongmeng Television and deputy president of Sunway Media Group, owner of the Chinese-language station.

"Chinese-language media are minor market players in ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations). ... If we work together, we will become stronger," He said.

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Sunway, which is engaged in advertising, e-commerce of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics production and property development, made its first foray into the Thai market by buying the right to operate a Chinese-language TV channel in 2010, after a decline in its advertising business.

The group applied for a license for Dongmeng Television, which means ASEAN TV in Chinese, and started broadcasting in 2012.

Dongmeng broadcasts news, entertainment programs, dramas, documentaries, movies and music, all of which are accessible in Chinese communities, apartment buildings, hotels and on local cable television networks.

Subscribers total 12 million in countries such as Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore, including 8 million in Thailand alone.

It cooperates with a number of its counterparts in Southeast Asia through sharing news and other programming, and runs news bureaus in some of the countries.

Having invested 70 million yuan ($11.29 million) in the TV station, Sunway Media Group expects to start reaping profits by 2016.

He, the Dongmeng director, sees a bright future ahead for the station, based on the strategic partnership between China and ASEAN, and the expected rise of ASEAN's economies in the coming decade.

Overseas Chinese total more than 50 million, about 70 percent of whom live in Southeast Asia, said a survey conducted last year by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.