Analysis of Subscription Demand for Pay-TV

Manabu Shishikura, Norihiro Kasuga () and Akio Torii
Additional contact information
Manabu Shishikura: Institute for Information & Communications Policy
Akio Torii: Yokohama National University

Industrial Organization from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: In this paper, we will conduct an analysis from an empirical perspective concerning broadcasting demand behavior and characteristics. More concretely, we will assume three options (subscription patterns), namely, nonsubscription, cable TV subscription, and subscription to broadcasting services via communications satellites (CS), and we will conduct an analysis of broadcasting service demand behavior using a discrete choice model. According to our result, price elasticity is low for cable TV and CS subscribers, which is a contrast to the United States, where price elasticity for paid broadcasting is high. It shows that factors other than price continue to have a strong influence on demand behavior (subscription choices) in the Japanese market for regular and paid broadcasting (the multichannel market) and that the market has not yet entered the phase of price competition between cable TV and CS broadcasting. With regard to channel number elasticity, the figures are high for basic channel service and low for special channel services. This indicates that basic services are an important concern for viewers. This suggests that, in line with reports that the spread of cable TV in the United States was promoted by difficulty in receiving terrestrial broadcasts, basic channel services may be more important than special channels as keys to the spread of paid broadcasting in Japan.

Keywords: Subscription demand; Broadcasting service; Pay-TV; Discrete choice model; Price/Channel elasticity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L51 L82 R22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14 pages
Date: 2005-09-06
Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 14
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/io/papers/0509/0509005.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:0509005

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Industrial Organization from University Library of Munich, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by EconWPA ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).