26 July, 2013

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Jul 26th. Curated by CASBAA’s staff, News Views carries on in the tradition of Market Watch to keep you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Christopher Slaughter CEO	When we talk (or tweet) about social TV, Twitter is generally seen to be the default social media platform on which the trend takes place. But new data released by social media research company Trendrr indicates that Facebook has five times more social TV activity than Twitter. Which is great… but Twitter has a song about it in a new Broadway musical (which is actually about a reality TV show, how meta)… so take that, Facebook!
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	Departing Time Warner CEO, Glenn Britt, a long time TV veteran, shares his real thoughts on the industry before stepping down at the end of the year. Weighing in on a variety of topics from carriage contracts to making money via OTT and “four anys”, Britt tells it like it is. And what if people don’t like what he says? What are they going to do… fire him?
Desmond Chung Associate Director, PR & Communications	Perhaps there really is too much of a good thing. According to a recent report, Aussies spend one month a year sitting watching TV and this doesn’t bode well for a country that is seeing obesity rates hitting a quarter of the population! Funny though – as TV has long been touted as the great influencer – you would think more people would be inspired after watching all those hard bodies on the small screen for so many hours!
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	The number of pay TV households (analog and digital) reached 772 million in 2012, up from 585 million in 2008, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. Additionally, on-demand TV revenues in the Asia Pacific region are predicted to more than double between 2012 and 2018 to $1.5 million, increasing from 16% to 24%. The rumored demise of television has been greatly exaggerated it seems!
Godfrey Chan Member Relations & Marketing Executive	Google has just announced Chromecast, a device to enable the delivery of OTT Internet video to HDTVs using a mobile device as a remote control – and with a very competitive retail price. But people may question whether Google has now given up on its original Google TV idea, requiring hardware manufacturers to incorporate the Google TV software into their TV sets, in favor of this dongle.
Mandy Wu Regulatory Assistant	Armchair mall rats may find their shopping spree cut short in Thailand as the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission announced they will regulate the Bt10-billion TV home-shopping market next year through new licensing rules. What this means for the future remains unclear but in those immortal words every shopping VO artists: Act now! This current offer may not last!