Outline

The 33rd JAMCO International Symposium this year tackles the theme of the fast-changing media situation in Southeast Asia. The ASEAN bloc of core Southeast Asian nations has experienced rapid economic growth in recent years, and its potential for further development as an open growth center has drawn global attention.

In Thailand, the country with ASEAN’s second largest GDP, we will hear about the broadcasting and internet content strategies of Thai TV stations on the basis of the latest media industry information. Thailand auctioned terrestrial broadcasting frequency concessions in 2013, and digital broadcasting was launched in 2014.

Subsequently, in addition to direct competition between the broadcasting stations themselves, the rapid growth of internet video has further exacerbated the competition and 9 channels have halted broadcasting altogether. The Thai TV stations are working hard to improve program content and searching for new ways to survive.

In Cambodia, the country ranked eighth in ASEAN in terms of GDP, the economy has pulled out of the extended turmoil of civil war and expanded strongly in recent years. Cambodia launched digital TV broadcasting in 2023, and distinctive new commercial stations of various kinds are continuing to emerge. Educational, news and programs for the young stand out especially, and dramas procured from Hong Kong and Singapore are also popular. Almost everyone now watches videos on the internet, too. Young people of the so-called Generation Z access wide-ranging content on various online platforms.

The symposium will hear reports on how the broadcasting stations of these two neighboring countries are seeking to survive in such different economic circumstances amid the advances of digitalization and rising competition between broadcasting and the internet, and consider whether their strategies also hold lessons for, or might otherwise influence, the case of Japan. These issues will be discussed by researchers and other specialists in the fields.