15 September, 2017

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending September 15th. 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 This week, we made a splash in Singapore, talking about online piracy. If you want to know more, the press release, other documents, and press clips can be found here. For a chuckle, don’t miss this sardonic take on the news. And then also read this sadder, more impassioned take on the issue, from neighboring Malaysia.

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

People asked me, afterwards, if there was evidence that the kinds of enforcement we advocate really have positive effects.  Catching up with reading on the plane home, I caught a headline about a new report from the UK IPO office, documenting that the multiple campaigns underway there against online piracy have been bearing fruit. But the report also documents the extent of the challenges with respect to ISDs, observing that “At its cutting edge, IP crime is innovative,” and that “organised criminals…who distribute set-top boxes are aware of recent developments in the law…. Given recent judgments on the sale of pre-programmed set-top boxes it is now unlikely criminals would advertise the devices in a way which is clearly infringing by offering them pre-loaded or ‘fully loaded’…” A separate report described the types of things pirates do to block enforcement of the laws against them. The conclusion: society cannot rely on outdated pre-IT era laws for copyright; updated laws are necessary.

Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore

OTT News Roundup: If you didn’t make it to All That Matters conference in Singapore this week, you can get an overview of the session on OTT through, How to monetize your OTT platforms: Tips & tricks from Singapore’s Big 3 players. A decent piece on iflix and how OTT players are taking aim at DTH. Aravind from Media Partners is all over the story.  Although the headline is complete clickbait, “Cable Apocalypse:Cord Cutting Accelerates, Sends Shockwaves Through Traditional TV”, it’s worth looking at the charts to see the actual numbers. Yes, “Apocalypse” is a bit of an overstatement. An interesting look at skinny bundles and who is getting left out. To finish off, the trailer from HBO’s soon-to-be-released 9th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm…“Larry’s Back & Nothing Has Changed”. These stories and more, continually updated, on the CASBAA OTT Group Newsfeed.

Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant

Global advertising expenditure is forecast to grow 4% to $558bn by the end of 2017, driven by digital display formats, in particular social media in-feed ads and online video. The distinctions between online video and traditional television are being eroded said Jonathan Barnard, “and the two work together much better than they do separately”. ”Essentially, television supplies reach, while online video offers targeting and personalisation; together they accounted for 48.5% of expenditure on brand advertising in 2016, up from 43.7% in 2010, and Zenith forecast their market share to rise to 49.3% in 2019

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

Regulators in Hong Kong had to be pushed by a lawsuit from TVB, but they have finally acknowledged that the world of advertising is changing! The Communications Authority (CA) announced that they would review the city’s outmoded “product placement” rules for broadcast advertising. Hopefully, the review will result in a meaningful liberalization. Note that the authorities make no attempt to regulate product placement nor any other aspect of online advertising. Maybe this regulator is waking up to smell the coffee – if not the fried chicken!

Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant

Sweeping changes to Australian broadcasting regulations were approved by the Senate on Thursday afternoon. Proposed only four months ago, the changes are meant to bring broadcasting regulations up to date so that they continue to effectively regulate the industry, which has undergone massive changes over the past couple of years. In particular, the amended regulations acknowledge the increasing competition from global online content providers. The reforms include: the removal of licensing fees for free-to-air broadcasters; the relaxation of media ownership rules; increased restrictions on gambling advertising; and amendments to the anti-siphoning scheme, among others. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has also promised to investigate global media giants, such as Google and Facebook, to assess their impact on the local broadcasting industry. For a more detailed review, a full list of the reforms can be found here.