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Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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| A lot of news about digital migrations this week, starting with Fox’s plan to live-stream its prime-time slate across the US, making it the first network to roll out an authenticated digital service for pay-TV subscribers across the country. Meantime, Bloomberg TV has signed up with Twitter to live-stream its market coverage and some of its shows. Elsewhere, Viacom’s Comedy Central has announced streaming deals with Amazon and Snapchat. And NBCU is touting its pay-TV-subscriber-only digital deluge of 4500 hours of Olympics coverage of the Rio Games, which start in just three weeks on August 5th. |
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John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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| Google is creating value while fighting piracy, or so it claims… the internet giant has released its annual, self-congratulatory “How Google Fights Piracy” report that reiterates that it is on the side of the guys with white hats. But there are still more than a few questions unanswered; such as why it doesn’t remove pirate sites from search results, just demotes them; how much pirate content it’s simply overlooking; and, despite trumpeting its participation in the CASBAA workshop on online advertising last year, why the tech behemoth continues to provide advertising revenues to sites hosting pirate content. At any rate, the timing of the update is slightly uncanny, coming hard on the heels of that petition signed by some 186 artists protesting YouTube’s “safe harbour” status for copyright-infringing material. |
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Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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| Reassuring, in these troubled cord-cutting times, to read a sensible article in praise of the bundle: “…neither streaming service felt like an adequate substitute for a cable package.” And it seems a lot of other people are starting to come around to the same idea, too: “…there are actually very few options available for those who want to watch live events without a cable subscription or TV.” All of which should be good news for major media companies being dumped on by Wall Street because of cord-cutting hype: they will “…remain relevant to any bundle and render irrelevant any bundle without them.” |
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Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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Meanwhile, The Economist weighs in on the digital transformation of the TV industry, with a rather less optimistic viewpoint: “…the fat, pricey cable bundle of 200 channels is fast becoming antiquated as slimmer streaming options emerge.” It goes on to specifically identify the industry players threatened: “…large media companies with weak programming… small independent channels that have benefited from being part of the “long tail”; and satellite operators, who have little to sell but TV.” Dour stuff, indeed.
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Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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| They’re not going down without a fight: CJ Hellovision and SK Telecom have filed follow-up report to South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission which recently rejected their M&A deal. Meanwhile, the companies’ competitors are — naturally — praising the FTC decision, which might still go the other direction before the dust finally settles. Both companies have hired individual lawyers though, a move seen as preparation for the deal to be blocked. There is still support for the merger, though, with the Korea Herald calling the FTC’s decision “…ill-advised as it deters the development of the nation’s broadcast industry.” |
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Anjan Mitra
Executive Director, India
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Interesting data has been put forward by Singapore-based Media Partners Asia (MPA) on India in times of slow economic growth all round. A new report from MPA states subscription revenues for broadcasters in India from cable TV and DTH platforms will cross the Rs 10,000 crore (US $1.5 billion) mark by end 2016. India’s pay-TV industry too likely to generate $9.4 billion in sales in 2016. The report adds Asia-Pacific pay-TV industry is, however, expected to grow at a sedate average of 5.8 per cent annually between 2016 and 2021. Well, that should cheer policy-makers in New Delhi who recently uncorked a slew of liberalised investment norms for media sector.
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John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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| In Thailand, officials at the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission have been given immunity from prosecution if they shut down TV or radio stations deemed to be broadcasting illegal content. The move by the ruling military government has drawn criticism from local media groups, with one member of the NBTC even going so far as to urge members of the media to file a lawsuit against the government. Join us on 5 September in Bangkok to find out the latest on the NBTC as well as a host of other industry developments at CASBAA’s Thailand In View event. |
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Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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| A new survey from IBM Cloud Video is casting doubts about last year’s headlines claiming password sharing is costing the SVOD industry millions; it says of greater concern for digital video service providers should be issues like buffering, ads, and slow streams. Other key takeaways in the report “Everybody Wants To Rule The Streaming World”: 43% of respondents do most of their viewing on a connected TV, most watch SVOD and cable about the same amount, 69% have never cancelled a streaming service, and buffering and delayed starts affected nearly three-quarters of respondents. |
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Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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| According to the Media Development Authority, most Singaporeans are satisfied with local media services (or, as the Straits Times puts it, “…satisfied of mainstream media.”). That assertion comes from three MDA surveys, the annual Media Consumer Experience Study, the Zero-to-Fourteen Consumer Experience Study, and the new Over-The-Top Video Consumer Study. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the surveys consistently found MediaCorp channels were most-watched among respondents. One detail worthy of much closer follow-up: only 11% of adult Singaporeans watching OTT video pay for their online video. |
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Anjan Mitra
Executive Director, India
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| Controversial Mumbai-based Islamic tele-eveangelist Zakir Naik and his sermons on his NGO-owned Peace TV has opened up a can of worms of illegal re-transmission of unlicensed TV channels in India. Denied Indian landing rights earlier, Peace TV sermons allegedly influenced some of the perpetrators of recent killings in Bangladesh. Peace TV, which beams in South Asia via various feeds, has triggered renewed review of monitoring of unlicensed TV channels and, at times, indulgent Indian bureaucracy. |
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Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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The latest deep dive from Matthew Ball at Media REDEF is a bit heavy on the Star Wars references, but “ Big Media’s Death Star Strategy” makes a valid point: “Scale matters, but it wasn’t sufficient to stop the Rebel Alliance. Hollywood should take note.” |
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Jane Buckthought
Advertising Consultant
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| Research and consulting company Strategy Analytics is jumping on the Asia digital bandwagon, with a new report that predicts the APAC region will overtake the US this year as the world’s largest digital advertising market. Analyst Michael Goodman says: “Advertising is about “eyeballs” and the sheer scale of the Chinese market, along with India and Indonesia, is why Asia-Pacific will overtake North America this year, despite underlying economic weakness in some economies. Millions just can’t compete with billions.” |
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Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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| So much terrible news lately, in so many different places, it’s all been a little overwhelming. But what’s also overwhelming is to consider how that news is reaching us: “…though it will shake up the economics of TV, live streaming is opening up a much more compelling way to watch the news.” And with some 62% of adults in the US getting their news from social media, it’s clear things have already been pretty well shaken up. But the repercussions of that shakeup potentially extend well beyond just the TV news business: “Increasingly, what counts as a fact is merely a view that someone feels to be true – and technology has made it very easy for these “facts” to circulate with a speed and reach that was unimaginable in the Gutenberg era (or even a decade ago).” |
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Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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| The digital rumble is on this weekend in Las Vegas, with the Evolution Championship Series (Evo for short) fighting games tournament getting underway. Players from 17 countries will descend on the event to compete in tournaments on nine console games (although at least one “Godslayer” has had US visa issues), alongside thousands of spectators, and featuring live coverage on ESPN. All the activity in e-sports is prompting serious consideration of the phenomenon, as well as the growth of e-sports oversight groups to protect the industry’s reputation. |
