21 April, 2017

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Apr 21st. 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 full-on Net Neutrality debate in the USA has resumed.  The Internet Association, representing the big tech firms, met FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to lobby against his plan to revoke utility-style regulation of ISPs (installed by the previous FCC majority as the means to enforce Net Neutrality.)    This was accompanied by thundering commentary from a former FCC staffer to the effect that “no net neutrality means the end of internet privacy.”  That’s more than a bit of joke, in light of the fact that the tech firms are already reading your emails (to serve up relevant ads), monitoring your TV watching (to offer you better recommendations) and keeping track of everyone you might know (to do you the “service” of sending you spam emails offering to “connect” you.) So a commentary in the Washington Post caught my eye:  “Google and Facebook Oppose Managing the Internet – Except When They’re Doing It!” Kevin Jennings Vice President This week saw Netflix disappoint Wall Street in some areas of its quarterly results, and it has been announced that the US video streaming service provider is in talks with Indonesia’s top telecom firm Telekomunikasi Indonesia to roll out its service in the country. Netflix has faced problems including local competition and regulatory hurdles in several major Asian markets and in Indonesia, Netflix ran foul of the film censorship board last year. The state-controlled Telkom had previously blocked Netflix but the service was still available in Indonesia via other carriers. Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore Still on Netflix, CNET postulates that “without buzzy series, we won’t subscribe in droves”. If you are wondering about live sports on the service, the company said in a statement, “That is not a strategy that we think is smart for us since we believe we can earn more viewing and satisfaction from spending that money on movies and TV shows.” Still wondering just how Netflix grew to now almost 100 million subs?  An article from Quartz looks at their unique strategy. But 100 mil subs is not enough for Reed Hastings.  He says Netflix’s “viewing is very large and growing, but nowhere near as big as YouTube…so we definitely have YouTube envy and we’ve got a lot a room to go.”

Kevin Jennings Vice President

In a week where Tencent acquiesced to Apple’s demands in China on including purchasing systems outside of Apple’s own iOS ecosystem,  Chinese authorities have introduced  comprehensive regulations to oversee mobile applications, which are mushrooming in popularity alongside smartphone use. The new guidelines are part of a broader effort by the government to clamp down on sensitive content which can be anything from critiques of the Communist Party to porn. The regulations will apply to more than a dozen platforms that offer video apps for download, including local streaming service Huajiao as well as  Apple and local smartphone makers. The move also imposes requirements not just on app stores, but in some cases also on developers and app operators.  It is worth keeping an eye on this, because the politically-motivated clampdown could also work to reduce availability of pirate apps on app stores. China already has regulations in place to restrict loading of unapproved apps onto streaming media boxes.