If you’re only just finding out about Disney’spurchase of most of 21st Century Fox’s assets, you need to seriouslyreconsider your news diet. CASBAA Chairman Joe Welch (from 21st Century Fox,btw) first mentioned the rumours in his opening remarks at theConvention, and now just over a month later, thedeal is done. Well, done as in agreed, notdone as in passedregulatory approval, although it seems to have the tacitapproval of a certain real-estate-developer-turned-politician. Andwhile we can muse all afternoon (and probably will) about anti-trust concerns and thelogic of vertical integration, let’s be honest, it’sall about taking on Netflix. Oh, and in case you wondered, TheSimpsons predicted this ages ago.

Regulatory tidbits from this week:

BigBrother is watching you and is worried about your emotional health…especially when you’re a Netflix subscriberwatching the same programme over and over and over. A Twitter storm beganon Sunday over after Netflix tweeted:”To the 53 people who’ve watched A ChristmasPrince every day for the past 18 days: Who hurt you?” If you haven’theard of AChristmas Prince, it’s a harmlessschmaltzy rom-com about a reporter and…a prince. Perhaps notsurprisingly the tongue-in-cheek tweet caused pushback from people concerned just how Netflix was using their “personal” dataand Netflix was quick tolimit the fallout, stating “Theprivacy of our members’ viewing is important to us“. Shaming itssubscribers, even in jest, for watching a feel-good film didn’t sit well witheveryone. One user evencompared the tweet to “bullying”. For the most part thoughthe banter raised a smile with some humorous responsesfrom Netflix and the Twitterati.

On the subject of Big Brother, rival Australian mediacompanies, Fairfax Media, News Corp and Nine have announced they are to explorea co-operative which will see them sharing anonymised digital identitiesacross their three respective media platforms. The Australian anonymous digitalidentity co-operative will aim to improvequality and effectiveness of audience targeting. Should the scheme goforward, it will also allow for more accurate reach, frequency capping and ‘onboarding’ of data sets and provide stronger, more effectivecompetition against Google and Facebook.

This is my last day working with CASBAA with this being mylast OTT New Roundup. As such, I figured that since the members make CASBAA I’donly feature stories about members. Discovery, A+E and Turner are all featuredin TVnetworks are buying original digital series for their apps. Zee’s DittoTVand OZEE will soon be replaced by its newdigital entertainment platform ZEE5 with mobile operators Airtel,Vodafone, Idea, BSNL and Z5. Staying in India, Discoveryties up with Vodafone, Reliance Jio, Facebook and Youtube for mobile-firstchannels. I’m sure you are up to your eyeballs in Disney/Fox news buthere’s an OTT perspective with, Disney-FoxMerger Gives The Mouse Everything It Needs To Fight Netflix. Andto finish off, a MUST READ. Regarding OTT business models, you know the rulesand so do I but this article from the LA Times nails it, TheOnly Business Model That Will Work For OTT. You wouldn’t get this(article) from any other guy. More OTT stories at the CASBAA OTT Group Newsfeed.

“If you build it, he will come” or, in 2017, “show the gameon TV, they will watch”. A newreport from PwC underlines the value of revenues in the US from sportsmedia rights which, in 2018, will surpass income from ticket sales to a value ofUS$20.1bn. Whilst PwC predicts this will rise to US$23bn by 2021, future growthwill hinge on the ability to deliver an immersive sports experience and thoseclubs that aren’t bound by exclusive rights terms and who should be quicker tomove from curated to viewer-controlled content will most likely see thebenefit.

Speaking of sports media rights, there may not be masses ofpeople in Asia (relatively speaking) who watch US NFL football. But it’s worthnoticing the huge experiment just launched by the NFL and their distributionpartner, Verizon. Starting next month, NFLgames will be delivered by Verizon free to all consumers (through itsrecently-purchased Yahoo and AOL services) on a true OTT basis, to anymobile device linked to any internet ISP.  Verizon’s plan is to monetisethe content for mobile viewing through ads, and also to build up its onlinebrands. The deal looks to have been great for the NFL, which has been besetby falling viewership but still managed to get a hefty increase inVerizon’s rights payments. (Another reason for the deal is to try tooutflank the people who’ve taken to streamingpirate feeds on Facebook and YouTube, helped by those platforms’ searchalgorithms.)

Taking a brief hiatus from APAC this week and putting thespotlight on Brazil. For the first time ever, thecreator of a Youtube channel offering piracy tutorials for users of Kodi boxeswas successfully prosecuted and charged by a TV industry group in Brazil. Thebox in question is called HTV; member company Cisco has been supporting the Pay-TV operators and anti-piracy organisations in Brazil by providing them theforensic analysis and intelligence on the HTV network. On top of payingdamages, the YouTuber has been ordered to remove all content that supportspiracy, and to refrain from further posting such material. Given the technicalnature of ISDs, it’s become increasingly easy to find online tutorials abouthow to download the apps or “add-ons” that allow users to stream infringingcontent, or videos offering troubleshooting support. Many of these tutorial channelshave a significant following, so while cases against ISD syndicates havetypically targeted uploaders and retailers, pursuing the creators of thesetutorials is not an implausible strategy…. just an unprecedented one.

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all I’m getting inmy inbox alerts are headlines referencing India’s ban on condom advertising. So,to spare you that particular story, instead I’ll draw your attention to aChristmas campaign of a different sort in the UK. Thisone, by Crimestoppers UK, focuses on our favourites, those IllegalStreaming Devices, and why they shouldn’t top the gift list this year.

Yes, the regulation on condom ad watershed hours reallyignited a round in the ongoing Indian culture wars. Sex – even safe sex – fallsinto the prohibited category of “vulgar, indecent,” and not somethingto be talked about, opined the conservatives. Nonsense, said the modernists,this is the Internet age; kids are talking about it no matter what TVregulation says. The Indian Express said the rule “reeksof a paternalistic state out of touch with the people”. Besides which,condoms are essential to meeting India’s populationand healthchallenges, and theyshould be MORE advertised, not less. Unusual for a rather technicalregulatory change, thestory got wide global play, which seemed to embarrass some Indians.

CASBAAmade a splash in New Delhi this week, with a speech calling on thegovernment to liberalise contracting for satellite services between Indiancompanies and international satellite operators. India’s“digital dream” would benefit, said CASBAA Chairman Joe Welch. Governmentspokesmen at the conference said sympathetic things….but made nocommitments.

Okay, so I missed this one, as it came out during the CASBAAConvention week. Cinemaindustry interests in Australia have filed a petition with a court to block theEPG and authentication server for a notorious ISD network, known as HD Subs.(In a bit of Newspeak worthy of Orwell, TorrentFreak has decided to call thispirate syndicate that steals and redistributes lots of HD channels a “premiumIPTV service”.) Meanwhile, TVBhas followed up with a similar petition against seven other ISD box services (whichfeature Chinese content alongside lots of English-language and Indian programming).There’sa hearing set for the end of this week – it remains to be seen whetherAustralia’s ISPs will accept this approach or whether they want to spend moneyon lawyers to oppose it. (Australia’s law was changed in 2015 to permitsite blocking, and plenty of websites are already blocked, but this would be anew use of the legal authority.)

Since this is my last appearance in News Views, I thoughtI’d share something REALLY important: the Best TV Shows of 2017. TheGuardian’s list of 50 best shows is stupidly big (and a bit of atease, since it’s not even complete yet). Meanwhile, TheAtlantic points out in its list that Netflix alone accounted for morethan 1000 hours of TV in 2017, making it tough to narrow things down to just 10shows; theNew York Times concurs. Vulture puts up eachof its TV critics’ personal list of bestshows, and it also picks the bestindividual episodes. Alan Sepinwall has pulled together his 20 Best,and Maureen Ryan at Variety found her20 Best list surprisingly well-populated with female showrunners andshows about women. There will doubtless be many more lists before the end ofthe year, but in the meantime, there’s plenty to consider as you prioritiseyour binge-watching over the holidays!

And finally, could you choose only 25 films a year to beadded to the US Library of Congress’ National Film Registry? Thisyear’s entries include The Goonies, Dumbo and Titanic, all films which aredesignated as having cultural, social or aesthetic significance.

You may have seen last month the FBI in the US namedthe hacker responsible for leaking Game of Thrones from HBO servers and forattemptedextortion. While announcing the indictment charges andnaming an Iranian national, the Manhattan  court official borrowed thefamous ‘Winter is Coming’ dialogue from the series and said: “For hackers whotest our resolve in protecting our intellectual property — even those hidingbehind keyboards in countries far away — eventually,winter will come.” Rather depressingly social media feeds have subsequentlyfeatured commentsfrom people who actually thankedthe hacker for stealing and even questioned why the FBI was gettinginvolved, although thankfully these people do seem to be inthe minority and are brought to task.

For years, ISPs across many countries have resisted requeststo help in the fight against online piracy by blocking infringing websites, butfrom Canada, comes a sign that the tides appear to be changing. Acoalition of major Canadian media companies, including ISPs, is planning to putforward a proposal to the Canadian Radio-television and TelecommunicationsCommission (CRTC) to implement its own site blocking program. The proposedplan would see the creation of a new agency that would be responsible formaintaining a blacklist of infringing websites and ensuring that those sitesare blocked. However, there’sbeen controversy surrounding the proposal’s suggestion that ISPs should beable to block infringing websites without first having to obtain permissionfrom the court. Critics of the proposal have framed this as an assault on netneutrality… but net neutrality is supposed ensure open and non-discriminatoryaccess to lawful sites on the internet – clearly, pirate sites don’t fall intothis category.  And even if piracy site blocking did concern netneutrality, successful site blocking regimes in other countries, such as theUK, have demonstrated that an open Internet and blocking access to illicitstreaming sites are not mutually exclusive. The proposal is set to be putforward by the end of the month, but howit will be received remains to be seen. In any case, the willingness ofISPs to engage in the fight against online piracy is a positive step forward.

Site blocking is also an issue in NZ, as reported last week.Here’s agood summary of the legal issues in NZ, which notes that the law is not assecure for content protection there, as it now is in Australia.

The ad sales forecasts are being published and GroupM, the media investment arm of WPP, forecasts global ad growth of 4.3% in2018 and predicts Google and Facebook will strengthen their stranglehold ondigital advertising and set to attract 84 per cent of global spending ondigital advertising, excluding China, in 2017, underscoring concerns that thetwo technology companies have become a digital duopoly.

Another leading forecaster Zenithlowered itsprediction for global advertisingexpenditure growth in 2018 to 4.1 percent to reach $578 billion by the end ofthe year, with marginal downgrades in North America, Western Europe and AsiaPacific.

Good news for our Pay-TV members, a report just out suggeststhatChina and India will account for half the global pay-TV subscribers by 2022.And, whilst forecasts for pay-TV subscribers suggest that by 2022 they willhave dropped in the US and flat-lined in the EU, here in Asia the subscribernumbers will increase by 92m between 2016 to 2022. So we can officially saypay-TV is not dead.

Targeted OTT news for the week: Of course you have heard alot about the possible Disney purchase of some Fox assets, here Varietylooks at it specifically from the perspective of OTT. Facebook wants to getinto the live sports business and wantsto spend a “few billion dollars” on global rights…said with thecasualness of, “going to the pub for a few pints.” Still onsports, there is a report that StarIndia will introduce VR for IPL in 2018. U.S. television executives believethat Liveand linear becomes more valuable in fragmented OTT landscape. Couldless demand really make something more valuable. It’s all about using techand bringing together all parties in the value stream. And, a funny one tofinish off: The Mass-Media Brothers, “Newspaper” and “Television” are atthe cutting edge, catching the latest waves…Zeitgeist, shaping culture and allthat. Gotta remember, “bemore than you have been…tense your core.” More OTT stories atthe CASBAA OTT GroupNewsFeed.

Ah yes, the copyright wars are fought on strangebattlefields: aUS porn firm is using judicial processes to reveal names and addresses ofthousands of broadband subscribers whose IP addresses are used to downloadpirate porn. Jeez, how would that go down in Asia? Would the goodburghers of Singapore want it revealed that they pass time viewing the likes of “LusciousLena,” “Perfect Pussycat,” “Sultry Hot Summer,” or “Wet Perfection?” Orworse??? Make you nervous? Safer to watch some YouTube; somehow Googlemanages to keep porn off their site. (Butnot piracy….that’s too tough a challenge.)

Whilst all eyes remain focussed on the AT&Tbid for TIme Warner in the US and speculationover a partial Fox takeover by Disney, or Comcast, over in the UK the Competitionand Markets Authority(CMA) has postponed the date to publish it’s initialfindings on the proposed takeover of Sky by Fox. We can now expect the initialverdict in January, instead of December, due to the amount of evidence it hasreceived, including over 12,000 submissions. And despite the potential takeoverin the US, analysts suggest that the CMAis still likely to continue its examination of the UK takeover.

Kodi (the legit software company) hatesTVAddons, their evil half-brother which promotes distribution of piracy“add-ons” to turn Kodi’s software into a font of pirated content. Contentindustry interests in Canada got TVAddons’ “repository” closed down, but now…..they’reBAAACK. Time will tell if they can lure developers back to their damagedbrand.  

Earlier this year the Pakistani regulatory body started toflex its muscles a little more and began to crack down harder on broadcasterinfringements. This move has pushed the Pakistani Prime Minister torecently ask Pemrato withdraw cases where stays have been granted to different TV channelsagainst the fine imposed by the regulator. It seems things are coming to ahead with the news that there are around 500 such cases that are not only eatingup legal fees from the public purse but offenders areallowed to continue broadcasting. Issues such as broadcasting withouta licence and violation of codes of conduct are apparently goingunpunished oncethe broadcasters receive the stay order. Another angle from some quartersalleges that PEMRAis not employing top dollar experienced lawyers due to budgetaryconstraints which is further slowing the whole litigation and court process.

Over in Thailand the rumours abound about the make-up of thenew NBTC, with news that thenew acting secretary-general is to be named in January after the departureof the current secretary-general Takorn Tantasith. Unfortunately, we’re noteven expecting to see the names of the potential new NBTC members until Marchor April next year despite the term of the previous NBTC ending in Octoberthis year.

Magna Apac forecasts are projected to climb 5.9% next yearto hit USD$165bn (£122.35bn). The region would remain the second-largestglobally, in terms of ad spend, behind North America’s USD$206bn (£152.75bn),according to Magna’slatest industry forecasts. The report pointed to Sri Lanka, India, andPakistan as the fastest-growing markets in Asia-Pacific, each clocking growthrates of 12% in 2018.

So here’s the latest in the Taiwan cable rate struggles: itseems that various cable operators are trying to institute very skinnypackages, but theNCC is pushing back, saying they are TOO skinny, and don’t have enough of the meatychannels that people expect in their cable bundle. Of course, behind allthis is the content industry’s all-consuming worry about reach and ad revenue –if the basic bundle is too skinny, then nobody gets a crack at those eyeballs.

We’ve featured a few adverts in the run up to Xmas but the animalcharity WWF is in the running for the most emotional in the list of Christmasadverts 2017 in the UK with its harrowing  Just Like Us advert to highlightpoaching and the illegal ivory trade. Featuring a herd of elephants, thepowerful one-minute film reveals the devastating loss an elephant feels when itsees its herd attacked and killed by poachers for their tusks.It’s the latest effort from global conservation charity WWF which is appealing for urgent donations to helpfund its work worldwide, including bringing down the illegal wildlife trade.

Christmas is coming and the voice of pester power growsever louder, CASBAA research committee member Kirsty Bloore, (Director forViacom Aus and NZ) explains howChildren are more influential than ever in their parent’spurchase decisions as gender roles and relationships change in families, newresearch shows. “It’s not ‘pester power’ anymore Kids are fully involved in thefamily conversations,” she told the recent Marketing to Mums conference inSydney. “And parents are really looking to them for theirguidance and advice.”

Things are heating up in New Zealand. Pay-TV operator Skyannounced that ithad won a preliminary court injunction against ISD sales by aChristchurch-based reseller, which as a result seems to have ceasedtrading. A case against a second pirate (Hamilton-based “My Way”) continues; that guy has saidhe intends to fight hard in the courts. He’s just a little guy, fightingthe “bullying” media industry, he says…… (Isn’t there another shyster pirate inNZ who pretends to be justan ordinary guy?) Ah, but there’s more: while announcing this initialvictory, Sky also declared it intended to file a suit demanding that ISPs blockegregious pirate sites. That produced a warof words with ISP operator Vocus, with allthe usual tech-industry voices claiming the real reason for piracy is thatlegit content isn’t available, and that legal OTT was “curing piracy.” (Funny,that’s not what Torrentfreakreported this week……)

Here’sa profile of Tickbox, the ISD-based piracy service in the USA that is thesubject of content industry suits aimed at closing down their illicit business.I predict that 10 years from now Tickbox will be known as the name of theprecedent-setting legal decision…..but the boxes will be gone.

Could it be coincidence? Two of the Commissioners fromTaiwan’s NCC attended CASBAA’s Policy Roundtable in Macau two weeks ago,obviously finding the focus of the discussions on ISDs useful. And thenthis week it emerges that the NCC is launching a crackdownon illicit TV boxes. The announcement is a good sign that at least some ofTaiwan’s authorities are taking the ISD problem seriously, but it’s not clearat this point how far the NCC can go, given that their focus is “the functionof the radio-frequency devices and not…the content that could be accessed bythem.” Meanwhile, in Australia, news that a long-establishedAustralian company selling pre-loaded IPTV boxes has been obliged to ceasepirating CASBAA member content. In an enforcement action brought jointly by CASBAA’s CAP and the newly-established ACEagainst “the-company-who-shall-not-be-named” the successful investigation andsubsequent closure of a prolific supplier sets a positive tone for plenty of2018 activity against piracy.

Two interesting columns about US developments: First, whydid the supposedly pro-business chief of the Justice Department’s AntitrustDivision decide to try to derail the AT&T/Time-Warner merger? Could theDepartment’s supposedly objective decision-making have been influenced by theCNN-hater in the White House? (The same guy who tried to pervert the FBI’sinvestigative process with demands for personal loyalty.) AT&T CEO Randall Stephensonimplied maybe so. He said “Ihave no evidence that there’s been inappropriate behavior. What I have is areally peculiar timeline.” And on another extreme decision – the FCC’s moveto not dismantle not just the burdensome Title II regulation, but virtuallyevery rule on net neutrality – it seems pretty clear that the whole thing isgoing to end up before the Supreme Court, as in doing so theFCC may have overplayed its legal hand.

Off the air in Pakistan: the government orderedall private TV channels to shut down for a few days, concerned about theirnews coverage of ongoing clashes between rioters and police near Islamabad.Apparently, theblackout didn’t last long. Channels were restored, and theLaw Minister resigned, giving the rioters the “scalp” they demanded.

By as earlyas 2020 half of all TV and video viewing will be done on a mobile screen,due to an increasing consumer preference for on-demand and catch-up TV overlinear viewing.This is according to Ericsson’slatest Mobility Report, which claims that mobile video traffic will grow byaround 50% annually through 2023 to account for 75% of all mobile data traffic.

Plethora of stories in OTT land this week. CASBAA membercompanies were all over it: “HBO CEO Richard Plepler said that thecompany will reevaluate its presence in most countries around the world overthe next few years, decidingwhether to launch over-the-top services directly to consumers, or ifit makes more sense to stay with existing deals.” NielsenMarketing Cloud launches in Asia Pacific with TVB as its first client,”The deal will largely be around building a data management platform forTVB and moving towards addressable TV and targeted ads for its OTTservice.” NickelodeonPlay app has launched with Telkomsel in Indonesia. For those notat ATF’sOTT panel, a summary here. Not covered were panelist’s comments about profitsand investment payback. Net net, Viu is keenly aware that profits matter,iflix and HOOQ are all about growing market share and Amazon ultimately wantsto sell you more stuff. For those putting up the Christmas tree thisweekend, find out WhichFireplace Video Is Right for You? Even more stores on CASBAA OTT Group Newsfeed.

A couple of regulatory updates from India this week. OnTuesday, the TRAIannounced its decision to uphold net neutrality regulations to ensure thatIndian consumers continue to receive uninhibited and non-discriminatory accessto the internet. This decision sees India go in the opposite direction of theUS, who last week announced its controversial plan to roll back net neutralitylaws. But just as the results of one consultation process are released, theIndian regulator is already set to begin another — TRAIhas stated that it will soon open a separate consultation process on theregulation of Over-the-Top (OTT) services, due to the “fast evolving natureof the sector and the changes that have taken place in the regulatory andpolicy framework” since it first opened the consultation process in early 2015.However, as a central part of the net neutrality debate, somepeople are wondering why OTT was not already included in Tuesday’srecommendations.

In Thailand, regulators banned a(nother) satellite TVchannel for 30 days. TV24 was accused of broadcasting unfair content; thechannel is sympathetic to former PM Thaksin Shinawatra. Interestingly, theKhaosod report on this states that thechannel remained free to disseminate its content online. Meanwhile,the troubled DTT industry went back for a third run at tryingto get government financial relief for the huge payments that channel ownersbid for licenses four years ago. So far, nobody’s willing to riskbeing accused of raiding the public treasury for the benefit of channel owners.

A recent reportfrom the BARB in the UK which looked at various demographics of TV viewinghabits in the UK, concluded that even though over 1 billion minutes of viewingtime are consumed on mobile devices, this equates in reality to only 1-1.5% ofadditional TV viewing. Interestingly, females account for 69% of on-demandviewing through TV player apps, whilst males dominate the live streamingviewing.

Unless you’ve been living on another planet or under a rock youwill no doubt have heard thisweek’s announcement that Britain’s PrinceHarry is engaged to Meghan Markle. It’s notonly TV in the UK that featured the storyand adjusted schedules to show the first official interviewas an engaged couple but broadcasters from across the globe are alreadyplanning how to accommodate covering the wedding which has been announced forMay 2018 and indeed, Ooyalaspeculates that the wedding coverage could break records for mobile TV viewing.Meanwhile we couldn’t help but smile when wefound this photo taken at the CASBAA Convention a couple of years ago.These are the things you miss when you don’t come to CASBAA!