"We are not driven by ratings," said Angela Poh, Senior Executive for Communications of HBO Asia when asked how they measure the success of the cable channel in Southeast Asia.
The HBO Asia executive came to the Philippines two weeks ago to grace the preview of Spartacus:Blood and Sand, a new television series premiering on MAX (Cinemax) and to announce the plans of the cable channel for the second half of the year.
"We are not advertising driven. We don't get ratings on a regular basis. The ratings that we get are for specific shows or timeslots," Angela clarified.
She cited the success of The Pacific, a World War II epic that started showing last April, as being the top English channel in Metro Manila. The Pacific was a 10-episode epic mini-series that was produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. (CLICK HERE to read more about this TV series)
"We are able to progress with titles or shows that we like and the way the viewers enjoy them. We are not pressured to put on programming by advertisers to make them happy as well."
She added that HBO Asia is comfortable with their standing in terms of being the premiere cable movie channel in Southeast Asia.
"We get our content from the top four big studios which is Universal, Warner Brothers, Sony and Paramount. Star Movies only get their content from Disney and 20th Century Fox. The big advantage for us is we get the bulk of the programs that come from the Big Four studios.
Angela cited that HBO Asia is able to bring to viewers unique shows.
"The very thing that sets us apart from the other movie channels is the fact that we carry distinct programming that is produced by HBO itself. We are very selective with the titles that come in as well. You see that what we put on HBO, like True Blood or Entourage, everybody here likes it.
"We have a programming team and program acquisitions team that actually takes care and keeps track of what viewers' feedback. We also get feedback from our affiliates [cable providers] as well. We work closely with our affiliates. And these affiliates work closely with our subscribers so we are always aware of what people would want to watch," she said.
She cited the upcoming show, Spartacus: Blood and Sand as an example of a series that people would want to watch but is not produced by HBO.
"It is actually a Starz series [a U.S.-based pay television channel]. We are also bringing in United States of Tara which is a Showtime series [another US-based cable channel]. In that sense we are on track with what people actually are watching and are looking out for. It doesn't necessarily need to be HBO. And we just try our best to bring in titles that will actually work for the market itself.
ON PIRACY. Angela is aware that people can easily go online and download shows from the U.S. immediately after it airs on television but despite this fact, she maintains that people still want to watch their movies on their television sets.
"Nothing beats sitting at home and be in your couch. Yes, there is piracy but we are also trying our best to bring our best titles as far ahead as possible.
