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MTV sees 20% increase in Asia advertising sales

MTV Networks, which is owned by the third-largest US media company, will probably have a 20 percent increase in Asian advertising sales this year, MTV Networks Chief Executive Officer Tom Freston said.

"We're looking at several years in a row of good healthy growth," Freston said in an interview in Singapore. "We're looking at healthy growth in India, in China, in Korea." MTV advertising sales in Asia last year rose 24 percent, twice the pace of the rest of the world for the company, which is owned by the cable-network unit of New York-based Viacom Inc.

About 150 million homes in Asia have MTV channels, which include Nickelodeon, Freston said.

Rebounding economies across Asia are allowing companies such as Sydney-based News Corp. and Zee Telefilms Ltd., India's biggest publicly traded broadcaster, to sell more advertising.

Advertising expenditure will rise 5.1 percent in the Asia-Pacific region this year to US$68.41 billion, the fastest growth of the world's regions, according to ZenithOptimedia, a U.S.-based media services company.

India's economy may grow at its fastest pace in 15 years, with Asia's third-biggest economy expected to accelerate at an 8.1 percent pace in the year to March 31, according to government estimates.

"India's one of the most interesting markets out there, where you've got this exploding middle class," Freston said. MTV plans to dub about half of Nickelodeon's programming into Hindi this year and may set up a south Indian music channel, he said.

Mumbai-based Zee Telefilms said last month its third-quarter profit rose 27 percent on higher subscription and advertising revenue. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. last week said it had a 51 percent rise in earnings in the last three months of 2003 as an improved ad market helped boost profit at its cable channels and newspapers.

"It's going to be a pretty good year for the region as a whole" with nations such as China and Indonesia likely to record between 15 percent and 20 percent growth in advertising, said Stephen McKeever, Hong Kong-based head of media and consumer research at Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd.

"The fastest growing area will probably be the cable networks," he said.

MTV has lost no advertisers or revenue as a result of singer Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson's right breast two weeks ago on the National Football League's Super Bowl halftime show, Freston said. MTV produced the program, which was aired on Viacom's CBS network.

In the aftermath of the incident, a US House panel last week passed a bill increasing 10-fold the Federal Communications Commission fines against broadcasters that air indecency on television and radio.

"I'm sure we won't do another show for the NFL," Freston said separately, in a televised interview.

"There's absolutely no economic benefit for us producing part-time shows or other shows like this. We haven't seen any cancellation of advertising," he said.
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