“Even though people tend to watch video content, including TV programmes, via mobile phone, tablet and computer, TV audience ratings still remain the main currency in advertising trading. Therefore, TV broadcasters should ensure that their programmes attract viewers and advertising revenue as much as possible,” said Michael Namatinia, president for the Asia and Pacific market at the Thai unit of Norway-based Vizrt.

Vizrt creates content-production, management and distribution tools for the digital-media industry.

Amid the rise of data consumption via new media, there are various ways to distribute video content from TV operators, but many content producers are still wondering how they can earn money from online distribution, he said.

“The challenge for today’s free-to-air TV operators is mainly related to content creation to promote the programme before the show goes live, to persuade their audience to stay tuned via the main screen,” he explained.

Apart from having a professional TV-programme production team, TV stations should have a strong social-media team to create and publish stories with compelling videos and high-quality graphics for distribution on-air, online and via social media, such as official websites, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, he added.

Namatinia suggested that this team would also have responsibility for creating messages or using Facebook Live to help boost the interaction with audiences while the programme was airing.

When the show ends, the team must design and select online platforms to provide TV catch-up service and publish messages via different online media to lure audiences who missed the live programme to watch the rerun, he said.

With this strategy, a TV station would be able to monetise its TV content’s efficiency in relation to fragmented viewers, the president said.

To deal with this challenge, he suggested that it was very important for TV broadcasters or production houses to have high-performance and cost-effective media-asset management, while TV broadcasters should also own the content.