NEWS & VIEWS
December 2016
9
Digital production sees
growing interest in Cambodia
What do you oversee as head of
TVC? Where does your group fit
within CBS’ content production
workflow?
Glenn Bandalan Ala: The TVC
Production Unit is a department
within CBS and we are responsible
for producing video commercials
and advertisements for partner
brands in Cambodia. We function
independently as our own business
unit but operate with the technical support and network backing
of CBS. It’s a startup business and
we’re building out our capabilities
now so we can grow the business
over the next few years.
What are your thoughts about
content production in Cambodia? What kind of technologies are being used currently?
Ala: Content production in Cambodia is not as sophisticated as
in other more progressive Asian
countries like Thailand, Singapore
or the Philippines but it has grown
by leaps and bounds over the past
five to 10 years, primarily because
of the rapidly growing middle class.
The majority of the population now have access to public
television and, more importantly,
Internet and mobile access, which,
we expect, will at least double
the demand for content over the
next few years. There’re at least
15 public terrestrial TV stations in
Cambodia, three of which command about 50% audience share
collectively, and the country now
has one foot in the door in digital
video broadcasting.
There’re also at least four major
mobile LTE service providers, and
the competition is fierce. Facebook
How is Cambodia
keeping up with
content production
trends? APB’s Millette
Manalo-Burgos prompts Glenn Bandalan
Ala, head of TVC at Cambodian Broadcasting
Service (CBS), for some insights.
❝Digital is
fresh new
ground in
Cambodia
for the TV
networks, and
especially for
brands. While
consumption
is still widely
and largely
terrestrial and cable, there is a lot of promise for
digital, especially given how aggressively mobile
is progressing in Cambodia.❞
— Glenn Bandalan Ala,
Head of TVC, Cambodian Broadcasting Service
is the social platform of choice
(perhaps even the only choice),
especially among the younger
population. Recently, I’ve seen at
least one brand venture into viral
marketing, and successfully at that.
So really, there is no place more
exciting for content production in
production outputs?
Ala: New skills are constantly
pouring into the production skills
market in Cambodia, but mostly
through the import of expats
and talents from more sophisticated markets. But the hope is that
through constant exposure and
training (which in a way is a form
of technology transfer), Cambodia
will become self-sufficient in providing itself the skilled production
manpower it needs.
I know of at least five universities here that offer media and communication degrees, so hopefully
we will see more graduates joining
the industry in the future.
In the area of technology, Cambodia is not so far behind and this
is mostly because the talents that
are imported into Cambodia for
big budget productions bring the
equipment in with them. But don