Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending July 21th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Christopher Slaughter CEO Winter is here again; the penultimate season of Game of Thrones has started, in case you’ve been living in a cave. The premiere crashed Foxtel’s IPTV service in Australia, crushed its previous ratings record in the US, all par for the course with the first global television blockbuster. If you’ve forgotten what happened in Season 6, Littlefinger can catch you up; if you’re confused by the whole thing, that’s apparently kind of the point; if you want to know more about the Targaryen family tree, you’re covered; don’t even ask about Ed Sheeran. But if you are tempted to dismiss it all as just a bunch of hype, pause and consider the vast Game of Thrones Media Industrial Complex. John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer In Bangkok, tongues are still wagging about the policy U-turn that saw the NBTC’s planned framework for OTT regulation suddenly withdrawn. A new policy is now being drafted, but in the interim the NBTC continues to press for action on nearly 3,000 pages on the Facebook and Youtube websites that it says contain “illegal” content. OTT policy is also getting a bit of news in the UK, where the government is requiring porn OTT sites to set up mandatory age verification procedures. You can be sure that not all offshore porn sites will go along, and it will be interesting to see if site blocks are instituted against non-compliant operators. Kevin Jennings Vice President India’s Reliance Industries has bought a stake in Balaji Telefilms to the tune of Rs4 billion (in excess of US$60 million). Balaji is one on India’s premier content producers and has also recently launched its own OTT service, ALT Balaji. Reliance also provides the largest Data & 4G network in India through its subsdiary, Jio. The Reliance injection of capital secures a 25% interest in Balaji and will help drive the growth of OTT and mobile / “on the go” viewing as well as help ALT compete in the OTT space, both domestically and overseas. Kevin Jennings Vice President What a week it’s been for TV in Britain. A new Dr Who was revealed to the TV audience after the (male) finals at Wimbledon, a new CEO was announced at ITV and the Advertising Standards Authority are introducing tougher rules on sexist TVCs . All this in a week where the BBC published their annual data on their top On Air Talent salaries. (Hint: If you’re still not understanding, it’s all about gender imbalance) John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer The 27-year old operator of a pirate app store in the USA has been sentenced to 16 months in jail, after a long multinational investigation and trial. Meanwhile, in the UK, there’s a bit of saber-rattling going on, with representatives of the content industry warning that individual end-users could face legal action over use of so-called “Kodi” box illicit streaming devices. Adopting its best tones of outrage, TorrentFreak says our industry is fear-mongering, to scare users off using ISDs. Well, duh….why would we want to do that? Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore Netflix reported their quarterly earnings this week. They really nailed it on their top-line numbers: overall subscribers crossed 100 million (to 104 million) gaining a record 5.2 mil subs for Q2 and revenues hit $2.7 billion. These results brought out the lovers, “the company absolutely killed it this quarter” and the haters, “one cannot just burn cash into eternity” (referring to forecast of negative free cash flow of $2.0 billion to $2.5 billion for the full year 2017). “Spending $6 billion a year on content, Netflix admits each show now needs an actual audience” but one of their worst shows doesn’t even air on the Netflix. Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant Here are some numbers for you. Released earlier this summer, the annual Cisco Virtual Networking Index (VNI) has forecast dramatic increases in global IP traffic and online video viewing over the next 5 years. Globally, total IP traffic is expected to increase three-fold by 2021, with the Asia Pacific region boasting the steepest growth rate. Over the same period, online video will continue to claim the largest share of IP traffic, growing from 73% of total traffic in 2016 to 82% of total traffic in 2021. Other significant trends for the TV and Broadcasting industry revolve around emerging entertainment mediums, such as live internet video, which is forecast to compromise 13% of internet video traffic by 2021. New technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) will also contribute to the industry’s changing landscape – VR and AR’s share of internet traffic is set to increase 20-fold by 2021. For more facts and figures, you can check out the full report here. Christopher Slaughter CEO Time again for “one of the biggest cultural gatherings in the world…”, you got it, Comic-Con is underway in San Diego. More than 130,000 fans will descend on the city throughout the weekend, dressed in full cos-play splendour, trying desperately to get into “the most important room in Hollywood”, aka, Hall H in the San Diego Convention Center. In keeping with the trend of recent years, TV will again be front and center, with more space on the schedule than ever. And despite questions about the relevance of the event given the absence of many Hollywood studios, there will still be wall-to-wall coverage throughout the weekend. Member News AT&T, Time Warner hit bumps on way to merger BBC Earth branded block launches on new documentary channel in South Korea Ditto TV has the largest OTT subscriber base in India, says Zeel’s Z5 Head Archana Anand Encompass Announces Long-Term, Managed Service Agreement with Viasat World Hotstar retains No. 1 spot among video streaming apps in January-June, shows data How Star India is cashing in on the Game of Thrones Fever India: Madras High Court Case on TV Copyright Continues India: Sony rebrands sports portfolio, adds two HD channels Inmarsat: ‘Eutelsat/ViaSat complaints without merit’ NetLink, Singapore’s Biggest IPO Since 2011, Draws S$4.7 Billion In Applications OTT’s First Digital Talent Hunt for Kids Launched on Viacom18’s Voot Singapore’s StarHub TV scraps compulsory basic subscription, offers new price plan with packages for premium cable channels by genre Tata group in talks with 21st Century Fox to sell Tata Sky stake Additional News 5 Reasons a Merger Makes Sense for Discovery and Scripps—and 2 Reasons It Doesn’t Bangladesh confirms sovereign satellite business Cambodia: Another Streaming Service Enters VOD Market to Cut Piracy I&B Ministry undecided over TRAI recommendations on media ownership even after 3 years India: Smriti Irani gets additional charge as MIB minister Indian government considers corporatising Prasar Bharati Indian media & entertainment industry to touch $34.8 billion in 2021: EY report Jia Yueting quits as chairman of LeTV Look out, YouTube and Facebook: Amazon’s coming for video publishers Media Consolidation Is in the Air, and John Malone Is Fanning It Programmatic Ad Glitch in Singapore UK: Pro-copyright campaign receives IP Champion Award We Live In The Peak TV World ‘Mad Men’ Created 10 Years Ago ‘This content is illegal’: Chinese censors clamp down on Winnie the Pooh

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending July 14th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Christopher Slaughter CEO CASBAA members Media Partners Asia are releasing their latest forecast for online video in Asia, predicting the market size will triple by 2022 to reach a total of US$46 billion in value, of which, as much as 75% of that coming from China. The report also highlights the strengths of local OTT services over foreign rivals like Netflix; while also pointing to YouTube and Facebook as the biggest advertising drivers in the space. Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore A number of other interesting stories in OTT land this week. HBO will make all eight episodes of Insecure season one available for free on its YouTube channel the same day that season two is slated to premiere on HBO. A new research report shows that SVOD gaining perceptual parity with legacy pay-TV and that linear to SVOD viewing really is a generational play. And to finish off an insight from David Bloom: In The Digital Future, What Do Studios Look Like (If Anything At All)? For more OTT related stories visit CASBAA OTT Group Newsfeed. John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer Ah, we all hate reruns. But this week the digerati were captivated by an Internet-wide rerun: a reprise of the 2014 debate over Net Neutrality. There was a “Day of Action” on Wednesday which – if you believe its promoters – was Yuge! Everybody who was anybody on the net weighed in. No surprise of course that Goobook was all in favor. Even that dreaded demon, a telco, tried to get in on the action, as AT&T announced it was for NN, too….but not for the Wheeler FCC’s “regulate everything under Title II” approach. If you want to understand both sides of the argument, you can see Google’s official spin here (note the “free and open Internet” mantra), and that of the South Dakota Senator who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, who says over-regulation risks killing investment in his rural state. Variety points out the similarities of the Day of Action with the campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which died in 2012 after the “free and open internet” crowd alleged stronger antipiracy enforcement would “break the internet.” Kevin Jennings Vice President The anti-Qatar alliance has launched a fresh attack on the Qatar-based broadcaster al-Jazeera Arabic, accusing it of having “blood on its hands”, inciting hate, violence and discrimination as well as anti-Semitism. The UAE minister responsible for media regulation said that al Jazeera the has given a platform to “some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world” and needed to be subject to new and externally-monitored editorial controls. The remarks about the need for new editorial controls confirm previous UAE statements that the total closure of the TV station is no longer being sought, but instead would be subject to what would amount to a severe anti-Qatari alliance censorship. Al Jazeera for it’s part has said that via video any call for closing down or obstructing access to their channels is an attempt to silence freedom of expression. John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer Clashes continue between Big Internet and various governments. The Vietnamese government said Facebook and Youtube had taken down 3,000 videos with “bad content.” No news this week from Bangkok, after the Thai government hit the brakes on its regulator’s drive to get Youtube and Facebook under control. In Germany, the parliament advanced a law that would provide major fines for social media companies that fail to delete hate speech promptly. Meanwhile, Twitter decided not to pick a fight with The Donald, and said his tweets don’t violate their standards. Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant A lawmaker in the Philippines has put forward a new bill that would extend the National Telecommunications Commission’s (NTC) authority to regulate telecommunication service providers. The bill is seen as a means to increase internet and broadband service standards across the Philippines, which currently provides the slowest internet speeds of any country in the Asia Pacific Region. Under existing law, the NTC has little power to enforce more than the bare minimum for service standards, and is liable to civil lawsuits from uncompliant service providers. The proposed bill seeks to amend the current policy act by allowing regulators to use financial penalties as an enforcement mechanism. Daily fines could then be imposed on service providers who fail to improve connection speeds by NTC-set deadlines. The amendment would also grant the NTC immunity from the aforementioned civil lawsuits. We’ll be exploring these issues, and many others, in CASBAA’s Philippines in View conference in Manila, on August 30. Kevin Jennings Vice President Korea’s KT and its affiliate KT SkyLife have launched an upgraded satellite TV service for cars, combining satellite broadcasting and long-term evolution (LTE) mobile network technologies. The two companies have jointly developed technologies to realize the smooth shift between LTE mobile and satellite networks as well as a smaller satellite antenna. The new service is expected to gain extra momentum on the back of autonomous cars and the companies have pledged to target not only Korea but also global markets, especially those countries with nationwide LTE infrastructure. Christopher Slaughter CEO Nominations for the 69th Primtime Emmy Awards are out; as expected, the list is huge. It’s also apparently proof that people who work in TV have very little time to actually watch TV, and as a result, the list seems to be favoring buzz over critical acclaim. Which has led to a series of surprising nominations, including, as always, some notable snubs. The final awards will be given out on 17 September, so feel free to spend the summer brooding over the list. Kevin Jennings Vice President After becoming YouTube’s first video to reach one billion views, PSY’s “Gangnam Style” is no longer the platform’s most popular video. That honour ow goes to Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again,” a song that debuted with the release of Furious 7 as an ode to actor Paul Walker, who died in 2013. “Gangnam Style” held the top spot for nearly five years and the song’s video has been viewed over 2.8 billion times. “See You Again” is currently leading in the race to 3 billion views. No word on whether it’s 3 billion individual people or the same person watching it again and again and again…or not. John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer I know, I know…..we’re all supposed to love videos. But, to tell the truth I HATE HATE HATE autoroll videos on websites and it seems my impression is correct: there are more and more of them. So I agree with this author: they are a revolting experience. Member News AsiaSat and Globecast distribute Russian Language BBC Bangla TV and radio content reaches 15m people in Bangladesh CBS News and BBC News join forces around the globe CNN Strikes New Hulu Deal for CNN Films, CNN Original Series ESPN is linking with Tencent to live stream the ESPYS in China HBO, Netflix Dominate Emmy Nominations QYOU picks Ericsson Unified delivery Star India MD: I Think This Is the First Big Year for Sports Beyond Cricket The complete visual history of SpaceX’s single-minded pursuit of rocket reusability ZEE Entertainment to hold the first edition of the ‘ZEE Entertainment Leadership Awards’ on Capitol Hill Additional News Axiata, Iflix expand partnership deal in Asia China bans online videos showing homosexuality, affairs China: Is it illegal to pirate sports broadcasts? Law will decide Europe: Google and Facebook biting at broadcasters Handy: Google Highlights ‘Best Torrent Sites’ in Search Results India: BARC Releases Policy Governing Intentional Watermark Switch-Off India: Dish TV, Hathway &Den Amongst Top 10 Global Pay TV Platforms India: Free-to-air channels can hit pay-TV players: report Skip It: Why It’s O.K. to Start a TV Show in the Middle Stream-ripping takes over as most aggressive form of music piracy increases 141% Taiwan Mobile supports competitor’s system in row with content providers The Kodi Apocalypse The real fight in the TV streaming wars is not over you. It’s over your kids. Three Months On, eBay’s ‘Total Kodi Ban’ Doesn’t Exist Top 50 operators take two-thirds of global pay-TV subs UK IPO: Illegal streaming threatens copyright progress ‘Views can happen by accident': Publishers are thinking more about watch time – and YouTube

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending July 7th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer Mainstream media awakened to the ISD problem this week. Publication of a study indicating that fully a third of English football fans are watching pirate feeds resulted in substantial coverage on the BBC. And in the USA, Bloomberg said ISDs are “sweeping the US”. Their detailed piece quotes various people (concerned content industry and disingenuous pirates) but has a really irritating headline: No, it’s not “sort of legal”, as the headline claims. The entire ISD ecosystem is constructed around clearly illegal redistribution of video content.

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

Meanwhile, in Australia it’s also a third of the population that wants to pirate the upcoming season of Game of Thrones….. despite the fact that Foxtel has lowered its prices and “the excuses around pricing are getting increasingly hollow.”) Foxtel has been energetically squelching pirates in various ways: going to court to get site blocking orders against an additional 128 pirate domains, and getting Facebook to close down live feeds of the recent Horn-Pacquiao title fight. (Foxtel said they would consider legal action – richly deserved – against those trying to stream the fight illegally on Facebook. But I don’t think they’ll really do it – suing individuals is pretty much a last resort for reputable companies.)

 

 

Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant

We’ve been following the moves by Thailand’s NBTC to regulate OTT services.  Last week, John Medeiros told members of the Regulatory and Anti-piracy Committee that the NBTC was planning a “light touch” regime – at least as far as traditional and OTT content providers are concerned.   (A fuller report is available to Committee members.)  Google, Facebook, and friends have been denouncing what they see as the heavy touch that would apply to them – as platforms, not content suppliers.  But now, in an unexpected move, the NBTC has announced a decision to scrap its previously-announced plans to require certain OTT content providers offering their services in Thailand to register themselves by no later than July 22nd. But this does not mean that the Thai government has given up on its efforts to regulate OTT content providers. Far from it, a new framework meant to replace the failed one is already in the works, and is supposed to be completed within the next 90 days. This time, however, there are supposed to be public hearings, the NBTC’s full Commission is to monitor the drafting process, and the final regulations will need to be approved by the NBTC board before any enforcement actions can be made.   Stay tuned for the next
chapter in this saga.

 

 

Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore

Top stories from the CASBAA OTT Group Newsfeed this week include: Optus has agreed to provide a National Geographic app to postpaid customers on a zero-rated basis. The National Geographic app includes a comprehensive curated experience with a library of videos, two live TV channels and more. See Why ITV sees upside in a Netflix-like ad-free service. The rise of the virtual MVPD continues with HBO and Cinemax now being available via Hulu  For a fantastic macro-view of the media business, 56 minutes spent listening to the Recode interview of BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield is great value. And just fun there is a interesting read asking the question, In the Age of Streaming TV, Who Needs Title Sequences?

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

Some of the results are in from China’s Ministry of Culture who has said it is determined to clean up the internet and has been looking at around 30 live broadcasting platforms out of 50 internet companies, including huya.com, yy.com, longzhu.com, huomao.com and miaopai.com. More than 10,000 live streaming feeds & apps were checked, with only a handful being registered and investigated and 11 shut down, such as 5kong.tv. These platforms were all found to show pornographic content. The ministry also investigated the app stores of Baidu, Tencent, 360, Huawei and Xiaomi, and removed around 300 live streaming apps. In addition more than 30,000 live streaming performers have been reprimanded and almost 10,000 were removed for pornographic content.

 

 

Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant

A new UK study – Get with the programmes – reveals the mechanics of TV sponsorship and its ability to build affinity for brands. It provides marketers with the evidence and benchmarks with which they can measure the impact TV sponsorship will have on their business. People love their favourite TV shows and brands that sponsor them can share in that love and borrow from it. That is the central finding from research by YouGov and House 51, commissioned by Thinkbox, the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK.

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

This week saw the launch of China’s Long March 5 end in failure when the rocket malfunctioned during flight. Something went wrong soon after launch, and state-run media unexpectedly ended their live video coverage of the launch without explanation. The country’s premier heavy-lift rocket was set to deploy a Chinese communications satellite. It’s a significant loss for China and its failure could have a significant impact on the future of China’s ambitions in the satellite business and plans for space exploration.

 

 

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending June 30th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Christopher Slaughter CEO Here’s a headline: Most people don’t trust the news, but they trust social media even less. That’s one of the high-level takeaways from the annual Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, a comprehensive survey of the news consumption and attitudes of some 7000 people in 36 countries. It’s a hefty report that runs to some 136 pages (download here), and includes sections on Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, in addition to the European and US data. As the authors put it, “…this year’s report comes amidst intense soul-searching in the news industry,” particularly around the areas of fake news and low trust of the media.

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

The seamy side of Internet advertising continues to come in for a lot of attention. Google announced that its Chrome browser would block ads that were not approved by an industry “Better Advertising” coalition. Meanwhile, other ad industry participants grumbled that was a competitive ploy; they want to challenge the Goobook “duopoly,” but this analysis points out that none of the potential challengers even cracks the 3% market share level. That leaves advertisers wondering how well they are really served by the current set-up, and scrambling to avoid having their brands featured alongside fake news, extremist videos, hate speech etc.

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

Hot on the heels of Chinese authorities firing warning salvos in the direction of unlicenced online streamers last week, Thai officials have warned that Over-the-top (OTT) platform providers must register their services within a 30-day deadline otherwise will have no right to do business in Thailand. 35 digital terrestrial television channels and OTT operators met with the regulator this week. Interestingly, Line and Microsoft appear to have submitted to the NBTC’s jurisdiction. But three major OTT platform providers — YouTube, Facebook and Netflix — were no-shows and have now been warned that they will face action if they do not comply with the directive.  It is shaping up to be a serious confrontation – Internet lobbying groups have warned that controls on OTT platform providers would “disadvantage Thai consumers and content creators.” The government upped the ante, at the end of the week, by moving to challenge Thai advertising on the three platforms. The chief regulator said he was confident the three would register before the deadline.

 

 

Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant

Alongside its requirement for Youtube itself to register as an OTT service provider, the NBTC has now asked OTT content providers, including the 44 most popular “Youtubers” in Thailand to register as OTT “services” as well. This follows a Tuesday meeting between the influential Youtubers and the NBTC, where the former were given until July 27th to complete the necessary registration processes – just like traditional channel providers. If the Youtubers fail to do so, they will no longer be permitted to feature their content on the popular video sharing platform in Thailand.

 

 

Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant

Meanwhile, YouTube remains the market’s leading provider of online video, and according to a report from Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson, Facebook, Twitter and other online video players are unlikely to  break YouTube’s dominance anytime soon. The report also says YouTube, Facebook and other providers of internet streaming video have a long way to go before they can overtake the traditional TV advertising market.

 

 

Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore

This week there were a few interesting stories about how sports programming is adapting to the OTT world. In the U.S., NBC has moved 130 Premier League matches to new subscription service for $50 per month. “There are a lot of cord-cutters and cord-nevers out there,” said NBC Sports president of programming Jon Miller. “It’s a chance to put product out there for those people who love the Premier League but don’t necessarily have cable subscriptions.” Also stateside, Fox Sports reached a deal with Facebook to stream free matches from the UEFA Champions League during the 2017-18 season to domestic users. In the UK, Sky is scrapping its numbered sports channels and replacing them with themed offerings focused on specific sports. Analysts believe that this repackaging exercise is a response to consumers expectations that pay-TV should be cheaper. And lastly, one can take a glimpse into ESPN’s Innovation Lab to see how ESPN is preparing for the future of video in a non-linear world.

 

 

Christopher Slaughter CEO

Global media giant WPP is among the latest victims of a massive cyber attack, with the organisation telling staff worldwide to turn computers off and not use wifi until further notice. Other companies affected by the variant of ransomware Peyta called “ExPetr” include Russian oil and gas giant Rosneft, Danish shipping firm Maersk, and US pharma giant Merck. In a note to staff, Global CEO Sir Martin Sorrell said “…WPP and its companies are still very much open for business,” countering reports of “…board games, offline meetings, PowerPoints, or the pub.”

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

Chinese sporting bodies are calling for stronger legislation to protect sports broadcast rights, as online piracy continues to affect the country’s growing sports entertainment industry. With the value of media rights for major sports events skyrocketing, piracy – including illicit livestreaming – has emerged as a serious issue. In an effort to curb unauthorized distribution, the Chinese Football Association allegedly recently barred fans from carrying high-end cameras and recording devices into top-tier league games. According to a recent seminar in Beijing hosted by the National Copyright Administration of China (where Yew Kuin Cheah from Fox spoke on behalf of CASBAA) there is lack of clear legal protection for sports broadcasts with one official saying the copyright law system in China doesn’t recognize sports broadcasting as ‘works’ subject to its protection because of the relatively low originality of the content. A review of the Copyright Law is currently underway by the country’s top legislature.

 

 

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending June 23rd. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer The TVAddons site (which fueled ISD piracy using the Kodi software) remains offline. Meanwhile in the USA, Dish TV – which filed a suit against the site – is trying to uncover information about TVAddons owners.

 

Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore

The bar is continually being pushed forward in the TV business. Turner’s Super Deluxe is having success with a live telenovela where the audience is invited to play along by choosing plot twists in real time. It looks like Apple may FINALLY be getting serious about its ambitions in TV, as it has hired two veteran Sony executives. Netflix’s first interactive shows, where the viewer can shape the narrative through a series of decisions they make has arrived on their service. The show “Puss in Book” got a full two-thumbs-up from TV critic “Scarley-Bear” Lay (aged 8). And, as I mentioned a couple weeks back, Amazon is further moving towards being the pay-TV operator of the world by allowing Prime subscribers direct login to some of the networks’ standalone streaming apps, starting with HBO and Showtime.

 

 

Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant

The TRAI has announced its plan to unveil new rules about mobile pricing and tariffs for Indian telecom service providers within the next 6 weeks, following months of bickering between India’s top telcos. The purpose of the review is to bring transparency to the assessment of mobile tariffs, which has been a contentious issue ever since the telecom company, Reliance Jio, entered the Indian market in September 2016. Over the past several months, India’s telecom service providers have been accusing one another of disruptive pricing practices. The TRAI sought feedback on the issue earlier this February when it released a 32-page consultation paper to industry members. Despite all of the recent disputes, TRAI secretary, Sudhir Gupta, has stated that the regulator’s review of the Telecommunication Tariff Order (TTO) from 1999 is motivated by a need to address the significant technological changes that have occurred in the industry over the past 15 years.

 

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

Alarmed at reports that the Thai authorities may implement strict regulation of OTT sites, various experts have started to explain how difficult that would be. And free-speech advocates are also continuing to register opposition.

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

The Sports marketing agency Total Sports Asia (TSA) has announced that it is launching a sports OTT service in Malaysia. The new service, called Sportsfix, will initially focus mainly on overseas foreign workers in Malaysia, who consume all their content on their mobile devices and probably don’t have access to a TV. Content could include live footage from Indonesian football and other “niche” programming where there isn’t enough demand for them to be carried on traditional FTA or pay channels. The service has currently signed deals with two mobile carriers and will launch in July.

 

 

Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant

For all you Canadians who are also Cantonese speakers (or don’t mind reading English subtitles) here’s an antipiracy video about the pernicious effects of ISDs produced by Chinese-language content companies active in Canada.

 

 

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending June 16th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Kevin Jennings Vice President One last reminder regarding the CASBAA Taiwan in View one day conference being held at the Mandarin Oriental next Thursday June 22nd in Taipei. A great line-up of speakers will discuss some of the hot button topics that matter to the industry and the event offers an opportunity to network and rub shoulders with leading players. View the programme here and register now to avoid paying “walk-in” rates on the day. John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer Piracy consumers are unhappy. They are having growing difficulties stealing from us. My heart bleeds for them. The cause for all the Sturm und Drang is the apparent closure of the “TVAddons” support network for Kodi piracy. (Kodi software is generic; the addons are needed to access pirate web transmissions.) TorrentFreak says TVAddons had – get this – 40 million UNIQUE users in March alone. That’s a lot of unhappy pirates. There was much commentary in the UK (where Kodi piracy is more popular than here in Asia). One other Kodi Addon developer announced a couple of weeks ago he was closing his operation, as “their software has become “overrun” with illegal adverts and hidden adult content.” I’m shocked, shocked. John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer A major new alliance of global content owners has been formed to fight piracy. We’re enthusiastic – the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment includes a large number of our members as well as major new digital media companies, like Netflix and Amazon. Variety found addition of digital media players to be making “strange bedfellows” – I think there’s nothing strange about it at all; it’s a natural expression of their shared fundamental interests. Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore In this new age of short-form video, social networks as publishers, VOD and targeted programatic ads, there is a ton of exciting innovation and exploration happening. A number of stories this week explore some of these innovations. Musical.ly, the lip-syncing social video app popular among teen girls has inked deals with Viacom, NBCUniversal and Hearst Magazines Digital Media for short original series aimed at Musical.ly’s Gen Z audience. See How Turner trained 500 employees to sell brand social videos globally. And to conclude there is a well thought out piece looking at Why Social Networks are Pushing Live Video So Hard? My fave line, “the strong arm shove into pushing us all to go live and to spam us any time from any of our friends makes for an experience that doesn’t make a ton of sense to me.” Christopher Slaughter CEO For Your Consideration: it’s that time again, with Emmy balloting underway this week. Which means that no matter what trade publication or website you visit, it’s going to be papered in promos for various of the 9000 plus contenders — of whom, this year, there are more than 400 in the “Performers” category alone! (But hey, at least they’re in alphabetical order.) The first round of voting will carry on for two weeks, so expect a lot more promotional stunts before we find out whether HBO will lead the nominations for the 17th year in a row, among other burning questions. The final list of nominees will be released on July 13, and then the REAL fun begins. Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant Earlier this week, Line announced its plan to launch its mobile service, Line Mobile, in Thailand. The new service would offer a range of mobile packages, and would allow customers to dispense with the data usage fees for the IM, call and video services that Line already offers. Mainly, it aims to provide users with a convenient, low-cost mobile service option. But the launch is not going as smoothly as planned… Line has been summoned to a meeting by the NBTC to determine whether it will require a mobile service provider license — which it currently lacks — before it can introduce its new mobile service.  The decision will depend on whether the NBTC classifies Line Mobile as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), or as a complementary package from its network provider, Total Access Communication (DTAC). If the NBTC declares Line Mobile to be a MVNO, it will have to obtain the necessary license before it can commence its operations. An official decision is expected to be announced next Tuesday, but comments from NBTC secretary-general, Takorn Tatansith, suggest the company’s launch plans are likely to be delayed. John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer Facebook is being regularly cited as a “problem” in Bangkok these days. The authorities seem determined to get some sort of control over illegal content spread on Facebook and other social media platforms. Facebook says it decides if it considers posted content unlawful, when it receives a request from a government (as long as the request is in English, with all the boxes checked). Ah, but the Thai government thinks IT is entitled to decide what is unlawful in Thailand, and it communicates in the Thai language. (Guess that’s news to the boys in Silicon Valley. Maybe they’re better at Spanish.) So there is clearly a bit of a rub there. And the chief Thai regulator says he knows how to get their attention – go after their money. “I will not touch the service; I will touch the way you make money,” he said in an interview. “I think they will cooperate because they make a lot of money from Thailand.” Kevin Jennings Vice President The latest figures released by Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) for mobile 3G & 4G subscribers shows that Pakistan now has over 40 million users.The PTA data indicates that almost 30% of mobile phone users are now internet users and anecdotal evidence suggests majority of the people are using internet to share video clips on WhatsApp and visit YouTube. The second highest usage of mobile internet is watching drama serials, mostly by women. The regulatory authority for Telecom sectors had earlier said it is planning to test 5G internet in Pakistan by 2020 with an initial phase of the project already underway in advance of the spectrum awards and licencing. Member News A+E International Boss Sean Cohan Touts ‘Strong Brands’ in Pay TV Bundles Astro Malaysia denies move on Reliance BBC Learning English launches content for Thai audience Discovery looks to Eurosport Player Discovery wants India among its top 10 markets Disney appoints country managers for Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand EUTELSAT 172B Satellite Begins Ascent to Geo HBO Asia Appoints Jessica Kam As Senior Vice President For Original Productions History Japan appoints John Flanagan as new general manager NBC News Launches Social Video Studio Left Field Only India still has 70:30 ad-to-distribution rev, says Sony’s Neeraj Vyas Sony to rebrand Ten Sports channels next month Star India case questioning TRAI jurisdiction over content postponed Star India launches its corporate website, inspires India to Imagine more… Zee’s news channel WION launches on Africa’s pay TV platform Kwese TV Additional News Australia’s Network Ten opts for volunatary administration Big-Screen Directors Relish Small-Screen Opportunities Cable News Wars: CNN, MSNBC, Fox News See Interest Skyrocket CJEU: ISPs may have to block Pirate Bay Cloudflare Fails to Limit Scope of Piracy Lawsuit Do TV Series Finales Matter Anymore? Global ad spend is set to hit $563bn in 2017 Here’s How LeEco Borrowed $2.1 Billion in a Hurry How Streaming Overtook Traditional TV in China – and Now Targets the Movie Business India: Plan Afoot to Retain DTH services on Indian sats Indonesia’s Digital Switchover Marked by Controversy, Conflicting Interests Is Wall Street Giving Netflix a Pass on Sky-High Content Costs? Kodi cheers Facebook’s ban on the sale of boxes allowing video piracy MCOT starts Thai pay-TV trial Meet the Wall Street analyst the big media companies love to hate Netflix Is Burning Cash in Its Shift to Originals Network Chiefs Talk Brands, Deals, Netflix Cancellations and Guilty TV Pleasures No, Netflix Hasn’t Won The War on Piracy PLDT brings Roku-powered TV to Filipino viewers Taiwan: NCC missed opportunity to make a difference The One Big Reason Why BuzzFeed Needs to Break Into TV US Opposes Kim Dotcom’s Supreme Court Petition Over Seized Millions ‘Facebook is only half in': Creators doubt Facebook’s commitment to original programming

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending June 9th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Christopher Slaughter CEO Last week, Mary Meeker was top-of-mind; this week, it’s PwC’s turn. The annual Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2017-2021 hit the streets, warning of anaemic growth or even decline in the sector over the next five years. Growth will come from VR, video games, and music, and the industry as a whole will see revenues increase from US$1.8 trillion this year to US$2.2 trillion in 2021. Meanwhile, another huge data dump from Cisco, whose Visual Networking Index report was updated this week, too. A couple key predictions: global bandwidth consumption will triple by 2021, as much as 82% of all consumer Internet traffic will be video, and the amount of global IP traffic from smartphones will also triple over the same period.

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

The EU decision-making process grinds on, and it now seems that a mandate requiring content portability for pay-TV customers within the EU will come into force early next year. This means that pay-TV customers who are temporarily away from home will have the right to access their content online – it won’t apply to people who leave the EU. Views on this vary; cable industry association Cable Europe likes the idea, but content producers are nervous about getting on the slippery slope to abolition of territorial licensing, which is a key financial underpinning for European content production.  I’m not sure how customers are going to feel…..rules were tightened after complaints that earlier drafts had too many loopholes that would lead to abuse; it seems the process for actually making this work will be rather complicated, requiring multiple IDs, etc. etc.

Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant

On Tuesday the NCC announced its plan to reveal a revised version of a media monopolization prevention and diversity bill by the end of the month. The original bill, drafted in 2013, received preliminary approval from Taiwan’s legislature, but was retracted a year later. The revised version will aim to prevent media monopolization by providing guidelines for media company mergers. According to the NCC, one of the main motives behind the revised bill is the rise of OTT content. While a draft has not yet been made available, this has led people to wonder how the bill will address the issue of ownership of OTT services. The NCC will also seek to make amendments to three existing broadcasting acts, in an effort to further limit the intervention of political parties, the government and the military in Taiwanese media outlets. A relatively lengthy period of discussion is envisioned before the bill goes before the legislature, expected in February 2018. All this — and more — will be on the agenda at CASBAA’s upcoming Taiwan In View conference, to be held in Taipei in just two weeks, on 22 June. If you haven’t already signed up, register here.

 

 

Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore

For those that think that cable TV operators can’t innovate, Foxtel just announced a major shift in their product offering. They will now also offer internet delivered, low-priced, flexible bundles with no set up costs and the ability to cancel at any time. “We want to transform our business from being known as the pay-TV provider for the premium segment to become known as the premium entertainment provider for all Australians,” said Peter Tonagh, Foxtel CEO. For a market “stuck” at 30% penetration this is a good move, indeed. Five entry level packs are available from as low as $10 per month, with the ability to add Movie and Sports packs on top of that. This is a major rebranding, program packaging and technology makeover and I urge you to read the article for more details.

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

News from the embattled Qatari state is that Al Jazeera has been experiencing relentless cyber-attacks . Hacking is something that has affected other global networks in the past and it’s not clear whether this latest round of attacks is a product of the political situation with Qatar’s neighbours or the start of something broader reaching that other platforms and netwroks should be aware of. Unconfirmed reports say that the attack seems to involve the Mirai botnet that surfaced at the end of last year, when it led to an internet blackout for major sites in the northeastern U.S

 

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

Trial balloons in Bangkok: having decided that OTT services fall under the Thai Broadcasting Act, the authorities are talking about how they might actually exert control. They seem to be looking at controls for the largest operators of Facebook and Youtube channels, and beyond that a “complaints-based system,” which might not be very heavy for most operators. But people with controversial political content are likely to find themselves in hot seats. It’s no surprise that the military-led government would be worried about content they regard as sensitive…..but some of the trial balloons have foreseen squeezing OTT to fatten profits for digital terrestrial operators. That’s not good.

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

India’s space agency has successfully launched its heaviest rocket. The Indian-built rocket also launched the country’s heaviest-ever satellite into orbit. ISRO say the rocket will reduce reliance on foreign companies in what they considered to be a game–changer and were hopeful of winning business from Western companies. The launch successfully put the sGSAT-19 communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite weighed over three tonnes. The national coverage of the launch has been euphoric, and often colorful, with websites comparing the rocket to the weight of 200 elephants, or five jumbo jets. (That’s Asian elephants, obviously.)

 

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

The war over Net Neutrality (NN) continues to rage in the US; now the Internet industry is promoting a Day of Action. There will be lots more like that before the issue is put to rest. There are large financial interests at stake: as one commentator observed, Big Internet likes the Wheeler-era NN ruling because “it improves their bottom lines.” No surprise there – but note that Netflix has stopped fighting, with Reed Hastings saying “It’s not narrowly important to us because we’re big enough to get the deals we want.” Well, Duh – given the huge market power they wield in negotiating with telcos and cablecos, their bottom line will do just fine in an environment where they might be able to negotiate access to consumers’ homes in the US – just like they’re doing in Asia!

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

A reminder that the deadline for entering the UNICEF Child Rights Award is the end of June. If you’ve produced any TV programmes promoting the rights or welfare of children in the past year then you can enter the UNICEF Child Rights Award. The UNICEF Award will be announced at the CASBAA Convention in November. More information can be found on the CASBAA website and you can download the application form here

 

 

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending June 2nd. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Christopher Slaughter CEO It’s become an annual ritual, the release of Mary Meeker’s massive Internet Trends report. As data-dumps go, it’s always a bit of an overwhelming one; this year, it runs to 355 slides. Of particular interest are the special section on China (where mobile Internet consumption has surpassed time spent watching TV), as well as her focus on India (where Internet users grew by 28% in the first half of 2016, still only representing 27% penetration). As Meeker points out, the report is intended to be read, not presented, but you can watch her presentation online if you’ve got a spare half-hour. And even though it will probably take much longer than that to get through the whole deck, it’s well worth the effort.   John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer European officials are being criticized from all sides, for different aspects of pending copyright proposals. Film producers at Cannes warned against going too far in implementing the Digital Single Market. “The territoriality of copyright needs to be maintained,” they said. “This principle ensures high level support for artistic creation in Europe.” They also said “Internet Giants” have to be the object of “equal application of the rules to all broadcasters, platforms, sharing websites and social networks.” The European Commission took a concrete step in that direction, advancing a proposal to more closely regulate SVOD services, including a requirement that 30% of their libraries must be European content. The Internet Giants’ surrogates took the field, too, with the usual California crowd (EFF, Wikimedia, Creative Commons) inveighing against rules that would (horrors) actually require internet companies to take steps to avoid use of their services for piracy. On that issue, a case in point arose: Google Video is now reported to be out of control, with piracy syndicates “delighted about how things are going because even if it is illegal, Google is offering a very reliable and superior hosting platform to many alternatives used to date.” There are large piracy websites in Europe which now provide exclusively links to content on Google services. I wonder who’s selling the ads…….   Kevin Jennings Vice President Minority shareholders in Hong Kong pay TV broadcaster i-Cable Communications have voted to approve a rescue plan that will inject fresh cash into the struggling operator following the withdrawal of support by its majority shareholder, Wharf Holdings. i-Cable launched in 1993 as Hong Kong’s first pay TV operator but has seen declining subscriber numbers over the past several years. After the shareholder approval i-Cable reapplied for its pay TV broadcast license and is continuing with its roll out of the FTA service Fantastic TV. Industry experts are urging the company to rebrand and focus on OTT video services and expand its operations to outside of Hong Kong.   Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore In The Road to À La Carte Television, the line that jumps out is, “Here’s a hard truth about the TV industry, one that will inevitably lead us to à la carte TV: You can’t make consumers pay for channels they don’t want anymore.” Which led me to think about how important recommendation engines are moving forward. I read someplace that an average subscriber only sees 20% of Netflix’s catalogue. At first I thought this was a bit nutty, but after using the service for a while, all I now see is programming that suits my tastes. And hence, in my head anyways, I’m not paying for programming that I don’t want.   Kevin Jennings Vice President In South Korea monthly mobile data consumption among subscribers using the LTE (4G) network has surpassed 6 gigabytes for the first time. According to the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, local smartphone users subscribing to LTE services used an average of 6.06 GB of data in April, up 2.2 percent month-on-month. Industry watchers said the increase is attributable to the rising number of users enjoying various services provided through mobile platforms, including video-streaming content. The latest monthly figures marks a sharp rise from 1.79 GB posted in 2012, which was only a year after South Korea first adopted the LTE network.   Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant The Media Consumption Forecasts report indicates that people will spend an average of 316 minutes per day with traditional media this year. Broadcast TV is the largest single medium for consumption, with 170 minutes viewed per day, as compared with 140 minutes for the internet. “We expect it to remain dominant for the rest of our forecast period,” Zenith says. However, the gap between television and internet consumption is getting smaller, from 30 minutes in 2017 to seven minutes in 2019. A new analysis of insights from Nielsen’s fourth-quarter 2016 Comparable Metrics Report found that over 92% of all viewing among U.S. adults (18+) happens on the TV screen.   Kevin Jennings Vice President Singapore’s My Republic internet company is rumoured to be looking for funding to buy a stake in the mobile telco M1. My Republic first came to our attention for offering high speed internet and easy access to overseas TV content through an impressive array of VPN services which allowed subscribers to bypass incumbent broadcasters and rights holders in the Lion City. If successful it will be interesting to see what USP My Republic will use to increase market share for M1 which currently ranks third in a three horse race.   Member News BBC Study Reveals the Value of Trusted News for Pay TV Customers Clement Schwebig Named New CFO for Turner APAC Discovery CEO: Cable needs an $8 skinny bundle to compete with Netflix Disney CEO Bob Iger Quits Trump’s Advisory Council Over Paris Accord Decision Fox Joins Tencent in Chinese Web Movie Production Slate Fox Launches Showtime in Asian Territories Foxtel launches [V] HITS’ Asian pop show ITV Choice goes on-demand with Astro Maxus will live on in India: Mark Patterson NBC Invests $30 Million in Euronews; Paves The Way For EuronewsNBC Telstra connects 29 sporting stadiums across Australia to new Remote Production Hubs Telstra signs broadcast IP network deal with Fox Sports Viacom’s Nonsports Skinny Bundle Might Actually Be Profitable Why CBS and Viacom didn’t merge, according to Shari Redstone WPP invests in 88 rising, a US-based digital content producer targeting Asian millennials Additional News Australian diplomats to lose cable TV subsidy in budget cuts China Online Video Sector Heading For Profit by 2019 Earth-i plans space video network Half UK VPN users access out of region content Hollywood & Netflix make inroads into Korean film industry How the internet is reshaping sports TV, and what the future holds India: TRAI warns MSOs on Multiple LCNs/Frequencies Launch date of Bangladesh’s first commercial satellite moved Nepal: Clean feed unlikely to be implemented as planned Singapore: Online piracy behind network scrapping EPL live broadcast Thailand: TV programmes fined for ‘immoral’ and ‘superstitious’ content The shape of Indian OTT universe circa 2021 according to Rethink Tech Research U.S.: Hollywood Studios, TV Networks, Foreign Buyers Grapple With New Video World Order What Creators Have to Gain, and Fear, in a Streaming-TV World Why Netflix Isn’t Getting Involved In Live Sports Streaming Like Amazon

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending May 26th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Christopher Slaughter CEO More details are coming out about Facebooks plans to start a TV service, including reports that deals have been signed with online producers Buzzfeed and Vox, among others. Now, whether this means the company is desperate to be YouTube or not is another matter, but for our industry, it might actually be good news. After all, If Facebook is spending as much money to licence content as has been reported, they will finally have some skin in the game. And hopefully THAT will mean the company might actually start blocking all those slime-balls using Facebook to sell illicit streaming devices that pirate our content.

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

For those who might be curious about the outcome of CASBAA’s regulatory roundtable last week in Jakarta, here’s a pretty good and succinct summary.

 

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

In the USA, the “Net Neutrality” battle is underway. The FCC has issued a notice that it is thinking of revoking its 2015 decision to subject ISPs to full on “Title II” regulation. Comments will be received through the summer, and later in the year the FCC might actually make the decision. The “don’t touch our Internet” slogans are being widely propagated and millions of comments already received (some real and some fake). But some of the pro-regulation types are actually admitting that it’s not about content transmission on the internet – Title II regulation is a tool to achieve price controls over internet suppliers. One commentator offered that “What the ideologues want is a public sector Internet.”

 

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

Also in Thailand the Internet is very much a subject of debate, but the topic is censorship. Social media and online video companies are coming under sustained pressure to remove content the government says is illegal. That’s not new. But this week the police said they would also target viewers who looked at pages that might be illegal. And the Bangkok Post complained that “the always questionable campaign to clean the internet of nasty material now is out of control.”

 

 

Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore

While some in the TV world think that Netflix is the player to watch, Amazon is slowly encroaching more and more into the space. Their initial modest complement of general entertainment product has now moved on to be a US$4.5 billion dollar programming budget. Over the last year they added 100 OTT “Channels” partners and this week they have announced that they will offer close to 50 live and on-demand streamed channels in the UK and Germany. See article from Techcrunch for the best coverage. Since the geographical constraints of the pay TV business have been significantly reduced, I have a great suspicion that the pay TV operator of the world, in video forms from live linear to VOD could well become Amazon. And if their success in numerous other business segment follows them, we may now be seeing a glimpse of what the future pay TV landscape looks like.

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

Verizon has confirmed the company’s plans to launch an OTT streaming service later this year, according to comments made by the CEO at J.P. Morgan’s Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in Boston this week. Verizon will use the combined platform of AOL and Yahoo – and their 1.3 billion users – to test the new platform. The company expects to close on its acquisition of Yahoo mid-June, so the over-the-top service (in the US at least) could arrive any time after that.  It’s thought the content streaming service will presumably be launched alongside Verizon’s existing Go90 ad-supported mobile video services.

 

 

Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India

Audience measurement globally continues to make news; not always for good reasons. Last week we dwelt on how India’s Republic TV was accused by competitors of alleged malpractices resulting in a face-off involving a TV news industry body and Broadcast Audience Research Council India. The issue continues to simmer. Technical experts have revealed other channels also resorted to the same malpractices to increase viewership. Unnecessarily caught in the cross-fire amongst TV news channels, BARC India explained such issues should be sorted out amongst TV channels as its job was to “measure what India watches.” Keep tuned in for this developing saga.

 

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

We’ve known it would happen – with all the malware infections coming from piracy websites, it was only a matter of time before some slimeball found a way to use illicit streaming devices (ISDs) to spread malware. Now there are reports from the UK that it’s happened there, and the popular KODI app is one of the vectors. Those responsible for the apps say they are fixing the vulnerabilities. (I’ve heard that before.) To my knowledge, nobody has yet researched the technical vulnerabilities of the piracy apps used on Asian ISDs…..anybody want to bet on them being technically secure?

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

Pakistan authorities have announced that the Ministry of Information is planning to change PTV Global to a children’s entertainment channel. This will be Pakistan’s first ever official TV channel that caters to children. The move will help promote children entertainment industry and create awareness among children about their rights, culture, tradition and values and we can expect to see this part of the entertainment industry flourishing. No word on plans for PTV Global’s international distribution.This also serves as a timely reminder that CASBAA is hosting the UNICEF Child rights Award again this year in association with the ABU and we are calling for entries for the 17th Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award from broadcasters and producers in the region. Programmes both for children and about children are eligible and can cover any children’s rights issue. To join the competition, please submit your entries online here.

 

 

Christopher Slaughter CEO

This past week, we’ve joined the rest of the media community in mourning the passing of Sir Roger Moore, who died at the age of 89. Before he became Bond, of course, he played Simon Templar in “The Saint” on TV, and was as dashing in black and white as he ever was in color. But more recently, we remember when he came to the CASBAA Convention in 2003 as a UNICEF Ambassador; check out a clip from that here.  RIP.

 

 

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending May 19th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer It seems the TV industry is finally getting some traction with enforcement agencies around Asia, with respect to the syndicates selling illicit streaming devices (ISDs) and operating the piracy server networks that feed them. Last week in Bangkok, there was a police raid and several arrests of UK citizens involved in operating the Expat.TV networks. (That was a series of networks with marketing pitches aimed at expatriates living in Southeast Asian countries and Hong Kong. They specialized in stealing and reselling British programming, including Premier League matches and other sports.) A few weeks earlier, Astro and Cisco scored, with a raid by Malaysian police on a syndicate stealing Astro channels (and many others) and retransmitting them through ISDs.  One Malaysian press report said the police were “taken aback” by the size of the operation, which was reported to have 30,000 customers.

 

Christopher Slaughter CEO

Two apparently contradictory headlines in the trade press this week illustrate the quandary the industry finds itself in these days; on the one hand, “Pay-TV bleeds subs in worst quarter ever;” but at the same time, “Global Pay-TV subs to break billion barrier by 2018.”  So who to believe? Perhaps another perspective is needed: “TV is not dying — it’s lies, damn lies, and bad media statistics.” (Thanks, Andrew Jordan!)

 

 

Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore

A year ago, a week would go by and we may see only a couple stories about how OTT/Streaming video is changing the current landscape. Now there is a torrent of stories in all shapes, styles and sizes. PCCW’s Viu just launched in Thailand. After years, Apple and Amazon came to a deal to have Prime Video on Apple TV. Hotstar showing IPL has Indians glued to their phones for cricket. PLDT will be deploying a Roku streaming solution to deliver Cignal channels, Netflix and others.  Amazon has announced they will embed their Fire TV and Echo into the TV’s of a number of manufacturers. Pluto TV is now adding on-demand to their existing free streaming channel service. Streaming Business News Network Cheddar Raises $19 Million. MLB did a deal with Facebook to stream one game a week. Vevo is trying to take on MTV with a new tvOS app. And that’s just a few of them this week.

 

 

Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant

The sorry saga continues with Facebook admitting to its 10th measurement mistake since September.  Facebook’s mistake elicited demands from ad buyers for more third-party verification on the platform. And the collective effective of the errors is getting on buyers’ nerves. “There is a general sense of ‘what could be next,’” said Jessica Baum, media director at Traction. “Even though the last error was smaller in scope, it still impacts overall trust.”

 

 

Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant

The Indian news television channel Republic TV has been accused of employing unethical tactics in an effort to increase its viewership.  Following a unanimous decision by its member companies, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) lodged a formal complaint with the TRAI, charging the recently-created news channel with running multiple frequencies.  Not an uncommon strategy in the TV industry, this method involves a channel listing itself at multiple locations, in multiple genres in the EPG of various MSO platforms, resulting in the channel airing on multiple logical channel numbers at the same time.  More importantly, running multiple feeds to garner television rating points (TRPs) is a violation of TRAI rules, though which are in suspended animation at the moment, courtesy Star’s appeal in Supreme Court. The NBA also appealed to the Broadcasting Audience and Research Council of India (BARC) not to release Republic TV’s viewership data before the channel put an end to their alleged malpractices, stressing that doing so would only serve to encourage this type of misconduct in the industry. Against the wishes of the NBA, the BARC has since released its week 19 results, revealing that Republic TV has surpassed previous category leader, Times Now, as the English language news channel with the most weekly impressions.

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

Chinese telcom equipment provider ZTE has announced it wants to expand its partnership in Pakistan and introduce digital television services into more regions of the country, including in remote northern mountainous areas. A company representative made the announcement at this week’s Belt & Road Forum in Beijing. Pakistan is one of the most important markets for ZTE outside China and the company has a strong legacy relationship with Pakistani telecom operators, pioneering earlier 2, 3 and 4G network launches. ZTE have promised that their 5G product will be a world beater. The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) signed a strategic memorandum of understanding with ZTE in March  as part of a key initiative for PTCL and ZTE to provide high quality video services to customers on TV and mobile devices.

 

 

Andrew Lin Regulatory Assistant

The Tamil Nadu Film Producer’s Council (TFPC) proposed to go on a strike starting May 30 as a way to advocate the state government to take steps on combating piracy. Piracy has been a long time issue within the Tamil film industry. The recent worldwide release of Rajamouli’s film Baahubali: The Conclusion was reportedly leaked on Facebook by a group of pirate syndicates under the name of “Tamil Rockers.” However, after a discussion with Chief Minister, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, the film strike will likely be called off after the CM’s assurance and opposition against the strike among film distributors.