Chapter 632: A Trillion-Dollar Market

The second plan had actually been proposed by Xia Yu before, but Huang Xizhao had turned Xia Yu's tentative verbal plan into a practical and feasible written plan.

That was to launch a satellite belonging to Global TV, making Global TV the first satellite TV in Xiangjiang and even in Asia.

In Huang Xizhao's plan, the current situation of satellite TV in the world was investigated, and the facts showed that the existing technology was sufficient for Global TV to launch a satellite.

Because in 1975, the American Radio Corporation launched the synchronous satellite 'Communication Satellite 1', and by 1976, the three giants of the American television broadcasting industry had already built a nationwide satellite broadcasting network.

And now, there are already five major broadcasting networks in the United States broadcasting via satellite at specific times or 24 hours a day.

So in terms of technology, the requirements have been met. The key is to find the American communications satellite company and place an order for them to launch a communications satellite for Global TV.

After all, there is no such thing as leaking trade secrets or military secrets. Global TV does not have the ability to take down the communications satellite and disassemble it for research, and Xia Yu also knows that the satellite launch company will definitely leave the final control backdoor.

The plan also describes the benefits of Global TV being upgraded to Global Satellite TV, and Xia Yu just skipped over it after reading part of it.

Who else in the world knows the advantages and benefits of satellite TV better than him?

Just launch a communications satellite, and the TV signal will be able to cover the whole of Asia.

Just launch three synchronous communications satellites, and the signal can cover the whole world!

Even if you ignore East Asia north of the Xiangjiang River, in Southeast Asia alone, there are more than 30 million Chinese, and the standard of living of these Chinese is generally higher locally, and they are perfectly capable of buying satellite signal receivers, commonly known as 'small potheads'.

I believe that once people understand the value of GTV, many Chinese will not hesitate to spend a little money to install a satellite signal receiver.

In addition, GTV can also set up an international English channel. There are at least tens of millions of English speakers in Asia, and the number will be even greater if India is included.

These are all potential customers.

As long as GTV becomes the first satellite TV station in Asia, it will have a monopoly. When other TV stations try to follow suit, they will find that GTV has already eaten up most of the market.

Xia Yu still remembers that, except for island countries, the development of satellite TV in Asian countries all started in the 1990s or later, including CCTV. It seems that terrestrial TV stations only started broadcasting via satellite around the year 2000.

If Global TV goes live this year and terrestrial TV stations continue with their old ways, then Global TV will widen the gap with them by 20 years, and terrestrial TV stations will never be able to turn things around.

Furthermore, the signal of satellite TV is better than that of cable TV. For the same programme, the satellite TV channel broadcasts it more clearly, which is a qualitative leap. Unless TVB also launches a satellite, it will only gradually be abandoned by users.

Of course, at this time, Xia Yu already didn't care about terrestrial TV stations, let alone after going satellite. By then, the goal would only be the entire Southeast Asia and even Asia.

After closing the proposal, Xia Yu looked at Huang Xizhao for a while before smiling and praising, 'Xizhao, not bad, you have a broad perspective and execution skills as well. Well written!'

Hearing this, Huang Xizhao knew that his boss had already agreed. He was overjoyed, but did not forget to be humble, and quickly said humbly, 'Thank you, Chairman, for your praise!'

Xia Yu nodded with a smile and said, 'Wait a minute.'

After that, he picked up a pen and wrote on the plan according to his memory. In his opinion, although the plan was very good, there were still some areas that could be improved.

After about ten minutes, Xia Yu stopped writing and returned the plan to Huang Xizhao.

'Implement the plan as I have revised it. Immediately place an order with the American communications satellite company. As soon as they accept the order, start preparing for the Global International Chinese Channel, the Global International English Channel, and an entertainment channel. At that time, together with the existing two channels, all five channels will be broadcast on satellite,'

Xia Yu commanded.

'Yes!'

Huang Xizhao replied loudly, full of motivation, and eager to get started immediately.

However, he thought of a problem and hesitated for a moment before asking, 'Chairman, if after our TV station goes live, viewers in Southeast Asian countries want to watch our TV, they will need a satellite signal receiver. I had someone look into this and found that there is no such thing in the whole of Asia, only the United States sells it. How do we solve this problem? Do we go out and buy it ourselves and sell it?'

Xia Yu nodded slightly and pondered.

He understood satellite signal receivers; his family had installed one in his previous life, and it had cost 180 yuan including installation. The entire device was composed of a parabolic antenna, a feed, a high-frequency head, and a satellite receiver.

In Xia Yu's opinion, satellite signal receivers were not highly technical.

But in this day and age, it can be considered something with a certain technological content.

Xia Yu is well aware of the difficulties Huang Xizhao has raised. After all, there is no satellite TV, so what's the point of buying a satellite signal receiver?

But if there is satellite TV, the market for satellite signal receivers will be opened up, and the market prospects for this are good.

Xia Yu was not sure of the current price of satellite signal receivers, but even if they sold for HK$300 each, the potential market among the Chinese alone would be HK$9 billion. Add in the English-speaking population, and the market could reach HK$20 billion.

With such a large emerging market, why give away profits to American companies?

Xia Yu immediately decided to produce and sell satellite signal receivers himself and take a bite out of the pie.

Moreover, after acquiring Hong Kong Electric Company Limited, he had already spun off a retail company called Jiuding Electrical Appliances, which could be allowed to enter Southeast Asia. Relying on the exclusive business of satellite signal receivers, it could quickly gain a foothold in Southeast Asia.

After selling the satellite signal receivers, it could charge annual fees like the future Broadcast Television, charging two to three hundred dollars a year, and gaining an emerging market with a potential of tens of billions of dollars out of thin air, which could be monopolised by Global Television 100%.

When competitors enter the market later, they can either give up charging annual fees and switch to free satellite TV, or collaborate with the newcomers to continue charging fees. In short, the correct approach is to maximise profits, and we'll see how to implement it at the time.

Thinking about this, Xia Yu's heart stirred. Since they were already preparing to manufacture satellite signal receivers, they might as well enter the home appliance manufacturing sector directly and even build televisions together.

Even if he couldn't catch up with the launch of Global Satellite TV, it didn't matter. He was eyeing the entire Southeast Asian and mainland markets. A Hitachi 24-inch TV now sells for more than 3,000 yuan. With a combined population of over one billion in mainland China and Southeast Asia, this potential market is directly heading for the trillion mark.

The developed markets that have already been developed are already worth over 100 billion!

With such a big market, why hesitate?

Let's do it!