Hi was checking out some Taiwan registered companies in the Communications fields for possible investment. Is Taiwan Broadband Communications a good company to invest in like I have heard? Is there room for growth?
Is the company well run/good reputation?
Anyone know?
Are Communication stocks ok investments in Taiwan?
Thanks in advance!
Fruit.
Communications is not quite an accurate description. Actually, TBC is primarily in the business of providing cable TV services. They are one of three large MSOs (multiple system operators) who provide cable programming to local system operators who then provide it to consumers. In addition to TBC, the other 2 big MSOs in Taiwan are China Network Systems (CNS) and Eastern Multimedia Corp (EMC).
Because Taiwan’s cable TV market is highly saturated (almost everyone in Taiwan has cable and receives many channels at a low price), the industry is looking for new things to sell to consumers, such as multimedia interactive digital programming. In other words, consumers could select from digital movies and view then any time they want, pausing midway through if desired, as well as interactive shopping, banking, education, stock market, entertainment, internet, etc, all provided through the existing cable infrastructure and a digital set-top box on top of each TV.
Of course the industry would increase rates for such additional services, but a few factors have been holding up such development. First is regulatory: the government wants to impose caps on additional fees and ensure that regular cable programming won’t become part of premium packages required for all consumers, and other regulatory issues. Industry has been fighting over such restrictions and is making headway in lifting price caps. Perhaps the bigger hurdle though is lack of digital content. There simply aren’t enough digital movies and interactive programs yet to make it attractive enough yet so many consumers would give up the 80 or 90 channels they already receive at a low price on basic cable.
Absent expansion into such new products/services, it’s hard to see what’s so great about TBC, CNS, EMC. The market is already saturated. But, the digital interactive market is where room for potential growth lies and regulatory and other factors do seem to be moving slowly in that direction. Of course you should research the subject yourself to make your own decision, but I’d be curious to learn what you discover on the subject. Also, forumusan SateliteTVGuy (or something like that – apologies if I got it wrong) undoubtedly knows about the subject.