The internet started to be viewed as media technology rather than communication technology from the 1990s. The same thing happened to mobile phones in the 2000s. As a result, the media sector is growing bigger and bigger in economy.
According to a 2011 report released by the Press Institute of Mongolia, there were 126 different newspapers published in our country. Sixteen of them were daily newspapers while 30 were published weekly. In addition, 52 weekly magazines are published in Mongolia and there are another 40 magazines that are produced quarterly. Also, 14 percent of Ulaanbaatar population that are over 12 years old read newspapers every day and most of the readers are over 30 years old, employed and have higher education.
There are a total of 187 Mongolian television channels and 61 of them are located in the capital city. An enormous information flow catalyzed by hundreds of websites as well as thousands of mobile phones is going on in Mongolia. The number of mobile phones in our country has already exceeded the number of people we have. A total of approximately 6,500 people are employed in our media sector, which has about 400 media companies. If we count the people who are working for the entertainment industry, which we often put under the arts and culture sector, the total number will reach 15,000.
The oddity
The mass media, which is supposed to be demanding for greater social transparency, has become the most obscure sector in Mongolia. There is no possibility of finding any information about the real owners of media companies and measuring their economic performance. Professional organizations and associations never produce such reports, thus, it is impossible to ascertain how many people are working for the media sector, what their average salary is or how they are doing in terms of labor productivity. However, thanks to relatively fiercer competition, the television industry has been developing quickly than the others in the media sector. Also, internationally accepted audience measurement is now done in Mongolia to assess television viewership by every television channel as well as each of television programs. It allows us to discuss the television industry a little more thoroughly.
Without the make-up
A survey says that half of Mongolia’s population resides in Ulaanbaatar and 75 percent of adults spend their free time watching television. So, it is safe to say that television has a great influence on our society. Maxima Survey Center now sets up a special electronic device in households in order to carry out 24 hours monitoring on every television channel in UB and each of their television programs. This monitoring allows the time and frequency of television programs as well as advertisements to be recorded. Furthermore, they can estimate with higher accuracy who watches what television programs and advertisements. Maxima have done this survey in cooperation with Kantar Media Company, an England-based company expert in consumer behavior and audience research. Some interesting observations can be made from this survey carried out in Mongolia.
The results that have been collected so far suggest that the Mongolian television channel that has the biggest audience reached a TV rating of only five percent. Moreover, 60 percent of television channels broadcasted in Ulaanbaatar has a rating of less than five percent. In other words, they have an audience that does not even exceed 5,000 people.
It turns out that, when their audience is combined together, all Mongolian television channels attract only 30 percent of the total viewership. Furthermore, 15 of the 30 percent is comprised by the top 10 channels alone, which include MNB, TV5, Mongol TV, Edutainment TV, UBS, MN25, TV9 and SBN. Televisions channels such as Shine Delkhii, Ekh Oron, NTV, Movie Box and Dream Box are currently in an intense competition with the established top channels.
Half of the total advertisements aired on television channels is sent from 20 large companies while the other half is delivered by 1,170 companies as well as other organizations. Those 20 companies that led the chart by the amount of money they spent on television advertisements are MSC Holding, Unitel, Nomin Holding, Monos, Naran Group, Mobicom, Skytel, Tavan Bogd Group, APU, BSB, Vitafit, Summit, Bodi Group, Xacbank, Next, Max, Genco Group, Khanbank, MSM, Tushig, Gem International and G-Mobile.
The total cost of television advertising in 2013 is estimated to be around 94 billion MNT, which is about 10 percent more than what it was last year. This calculation takes into account the announced ad rates of every television channel in UB and the duration of broadcasted advertisements on those channels. Another set of numbers that catch attention is that a total of 4,535 goods and services were advertised by 2,500 companies in 2010 while 2,546 goods and services were advertised by 1,193 companies in 2012. This decrease in advertised products as well as owner companies is likely to take place again this year.
Why does the broadcasting of advertisements tend to increase despite the less number of companies advertising less number of goods? It is because of the new television channels that are being introduced to the industry every year. Those channels must receive some part of their income from broadcasting ads, thus, they seek to attract advertisements. One way to achieve that goal is to broadcast advertisements from big companies free of charge. When paying for a television channel for ads, one should be buying some audience for them rather than some period of broadcasting time. However, they are now more focused on the airing time with no guaranteed audience.
Indistinguishable television channels with poor content
With the exception of occasional Oyu Tolgoi discussions, a Zuun Erkhem episode interviewing the President Elbegdorj, the 2013 Presidential Debate and a television series called ‘Huvi Tavilangiin Eedree’, Mongolian television programs have always had an audience that is 3-10 times less than that of Korean drama series broadcasted on our channels.
Mongolian television channels need to undergo a revolutionary change in what they broadcast and be able to differ from each other by their content so that a television channel acquires its own audience in the total viewership. Also, it will greatly aid the companies that are advertising their products on television channels to improve their sales. Our television channels are currently competing to decrease their rates, which makes the difference of product marketing insignificant. For example, it costs almost the same to advertise a cheap product from China and a world brand product. This is the reason why many big companies have lately been refusing to use television advertisements. Internationally, TV channel management aims at aligning its TV program policy with its business policy and increasing their viewership. Our television channels, on the contrary, have a marketing department that has completely different objectives.
As of August 2013, a total of 261,000 Ulaanbaatar residents watched Mongolian television channels in the prime time while foreign channels had an audience of 91,000 people in the same period of time. It was regularly observed ever since the survey started, which means that Mongolian channels have lost 30-40 percent of their market to foreign competitors. If Korean television dramas have the biggest viewership, is there any Mongolian television program that can actually attract audience?
Reflection
The small size as well as insufficient growth of our media sector can be explained by lack of fair competition with in the sector and in economy as a whole.
Companies only engage in a competition to lower prices if the sector has little competitiveness and reduced opportunities. Ultimately, everyone ends up losing and faces a deficit. Our advertising market needs only a six television channels that are internationally competitive rather than 60 deficit-ridden channels. How is this still going on?
The fact that it is still going on suggests that there is a strong presence of the interests to use social media as a brainwashing device to mislead the public opinion. It has lately been discussed that Mongolia’s media sector now has a type of ‘non-disclosure agreement’ where one party pays a media company a huge amount of money to ensure that the company never discloses any information they are uncomfortable with. Some pieces of news disappear suddenly from big websites within an hour.
Information about media companies, their real owners and political affiliations, need to be publicly announced. Also, as social media serves the public, their financial performance should be available for people to see.
Financial reports of media advertisements by the government need to be disclosed. Furthermore, television programs that are paid by taxpayers’ money to promote public servants, especially ministers and members of parliaments, should be restricted.
If we manage to foster free competition in the media sector, many new players such as advertising agents will come into the market and create new businesses. It will also help companies to reach out to their target audience.
However, this industry is in shambles today. Free market competition can only be achieved after all the players are in their respective places as a result of appropriate government regulations as well as natural market mechanisms. Also, fair competition rather than an increase in the number of media companies can create capable workforce, enhance labor productivity and improve salary in terms of quality.
Our media sector must not serve to influence the society, but should be the mirror that reflects it clearly.