Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Feb 14th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
At the risk of telling you what you already know, you might have seen that Comcast has announced that it will buy Time Warner Cable in the US. The news has prompted some predictably snarky reactions, skepticism about whether the deal will actually go through, concerns about “regulatory hurdles”, and, of course, major disappointment at Charter Communications. Even though consolidation is nothing new in the US cable industry, expect the story to remain in the headlines for some time to come. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
In Thailand, the upstart pay-TV competitor CTH has announced a major change in direction. Recognizing the difficulties of tying together Thailand’s 300+ significant local cable networks into a single network with a single brand, CTH has changed its name, changed its partnerships, and changed its direction. CTH faces enormous challenges in monetizing its huge expense to purchase English Premier League rights for the current 3-year contract; next season it will seek new outlets for those programs on new digital FTA channels. |
Jill GrindaExecutive Vice President |
As if the Australian multichannel TV market wasn’t crowded enough already, further disruption is in the works as Telstra is apparently planning to partner with Google to introduce Chromecast dongles into Australia this year. Telstra is aiming to get its BigPond movies, music and sports content available on the Google Chromecast dongle, opening up its TV and content services offering to a much wider audience. The hook up with Google is very interesting given that Telstra owns 50% of Foxtel, alongside News Corp. |
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
Hot on the heels of its record-setting year in 2013, Netflix is reportedly raising money to go after the European market, among other things. Of course, nothing attracts the spotlight quite like success, and suddenly every aspect of the company seems to be under scrutiny. But despite some criticism, there are still plenty of Netflix bulls around. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
This online journal has a pretty good analysis of the TRAI’s recent decision restricting the business practices of content aggregation companies in India. The decision produces winners, losers and a series of unanswered questions. |
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
Two former BBC News executives are throwing down the gauntlet, declaring that the era of the 24-hour news channel is over. They aren’t the only ones grappling with the fundamentals; Netscape founder Marc Andreeson has been tweeting an ongoing manifesto on how to fix the news. Meanwhile, in the real world, CNN’s efforts at transformation have been getting a lot of press lately, too. |
Jill GrindaExecutive Vice President |
What a great idea – make a set top box sexy! So sexy that it could be the reason why Comcast added more video customers than it lost last quarter. Comcast’s new set-top boxes – the X1 features a searchable cloud-based interface making it easier to navigate through hundreds of channels and on-demand content, can be controlled by a smartphone or voice commands and includes a digital video recorder. Comcast has found that X1 users consume more on-demand content and are less likely to drop their subscriptions. ….and the X1 has even been endorsed by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings! |
Godfrey ChanMarketing & Member Relations Executive |
Is Facebook promoting itself as a real-time mobile social TV network that is more representative of the general population than rivals such as Twitter? Facebook has partnered with SecondSync, a leading provider of Social TV analytics solutions, in releasing an analysis of how TV drives conversation on Facebook in three countries. |
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