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John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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| The FCC under Ajit Pai is moving ahead with scrapping the utility-style regulation imposed on ISPs in the name of “net neutrality” under Tom Wheeler’s leadership. The Washington Post had a good summary of the state of play and various positions. The process will be a long one, with a full Commission vote set for May 18 that will set the wheels in motion. There will be opportunities for public input, of course, and the Usual Internet Suspects have started making their views known by spamming the FCC’s website. For those interested in where Chairman Pai is really coming from, there’s a comprehensive Re-Code interview with him, in which he sums up “you can’t have these pure net neutrality rules if you also want to have massive investment in networks, because the return on the investment simply isn’t going to be there….as I see it, there’s a happy middle ground here, which is light-touch regulation.” Meanwhile, in India the debate continues as to exactly what should be regulated under TRAI’s Net Neutrality rules. There’s a lot of divergence among various internet players; it was interesting to see Hotstar, Netflix and Akamai all arguing that content delivery networks (CDNs) should not be regulated. (Hotstar favored inserting conditions into ISP licenses as the best means of implementing narrowly-targeted “bright line” rules.) |
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Kevin Jennings
Vice President
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| The chattering classes are awash with the rumour that Facebook has kicked its push for TV-like shows into high gear and is aiming to launch its premium, TV-like video in mid-June, right around the Cannes Lions advertising festival. It’s thought they will have around two dozen shows for the initial push and are working on two tiers for longer, big-budget shows, and a lower tier for shorter, less expensive shows (with a virtual reality dating show from Conde Nast Entertainment already in the works in time for Cannes). The new video initiative means Facebook would play a much more hands-on role in controlling the content that appears on its social network. The video strategy pits Facebook directly against YouTube, which last week announced it would fund a slate of original shows starring big names like Ellen DeGeneres, Kevin Hart, and Katy Perry. The new YouTube shows will be supported by ads and available for anyone to watch, instead of living in YouTube’s $10-a-month subscription service.
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Jane Buckthought
Advertising Consultant
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| Google and Facebook together accounted for 20 percent of global advertising expenditure across all media in 2016, according to the new edition of Zenith’s Top Thirty Global Media Owners, which ranks the companies at number one and two, respectively. However, one of the most startling (and depressing) aspects of the advertising and marketing industries is the depth of the ignorance all around us. You expect that professionals would be aware of the key facts that govern their industry, but ad industry professionals have become blind to the truth – and some of them prefer it that way – argues Bob Hoffman |
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Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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| For News please read articles linked in Kevin and Jane’s pieces. Views are as follows. For many of us in the pay-TV industry, Google and Facebook (Goobook) have just signaled that they are now gunning to eat our lunch. With 77% of online ad spending going their way, all that’s left is organic growth or new markets. Since the internet has taken a HUGE chunk out of the traditional publishing business, Goobook will now be going after TV. They own “only” 20% of global advertising expenditure across all media and are now eyeing the current global TV ad spends of $180 bil. Youtube and FB creating their own shows and TV apps and Youtube’s new skinny bundle are hints at what’s coming. Zuck sums it up nicely, “The goal is going to be creating some anchor content initially that helps people learn that going to the video tab that that’s a great destination where they can explore and come to Facebook with the intent to watch the videos that they want…and then the long-term goal is actually not to be paying for specific content like that, but doing a revenue share model once the whole economy around video on Facebook is built up.”
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Kevin Jennings
Vice President
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| There’s a major shake-up about to happen in Australian TV with the Oz government announcing plans to scrap media ownership restraints in the free TV arena. The proposed amendments will drop the decades-old 75 per cent reach rule and the “two-out-of-three rule”, which prevents media companies owning a TV station, radio station and newspaper in the same market. In addition the government will abolish broadcasting licence fees in favour of spectrum fees to reflect the current media landscape. The moves will help improve the sustainability of Australia’s free-to-air broadcasting sector, support Australian content and modernise broadcasting and content regulation. Local regional TV broadcasters have welcomed the reforms that would allow them to merge with metropolitan TV networks or media companies to be able to compete with companies like Netflix. The Sydney Morning Herald said the reforms, if passed, “will open the door for a major round of mergers and acquisitions“.
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Kevin Jennings
Vice President
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| And on the subject of consolidation, Malaysia’s Media Prima has bought the local start up Rev Asia for US$24M. The move will fully incorporate REV Asia into Media Prima’s digital platform — and in doing so makes the platform the largest Malaysian digital media company. Media Prima’s digital reach is estimated to be more than 10 million people and puts it in third place behind Facebook and Google. Rev Asia was founded by the Catcha Group who is also involved in ventures such as Iflix. Media Prima ’s business interests include print, radio, TV and streaming OTT services.
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Anjan Mitra
Executive Director, India
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| The cudgels that Star India has taken up against TRAI in Madras High Court, challenging whether the regulator can hold sway on commercial matters relating to content and their IPRs, shows legal twists and turns akin to some soaps that the broadcaster might be airing on its various TV channels, including several judges recusing themselves from the case. The Supreme Court allowed TRAI to publish its new set of regulations relating to tariff, QoS and inter-connect norms even while a High Court was hearing a case filed by Star against TRAI. But later, SC also stayed implementation of the published regulatory norms till the high court disposed of the case. Meanwhile, the MSOs are pushing for compliance of the new tariff norms. And, petitioner Star India is not far behind as it too published its inter-connect offers, aimed at complying with the now-frozen norms. Almost when I was going to close this piece, arrives the news that Tata Sky and Airtel DTH too have challenged the TRAI tariff order and this time in Delhi High Court. Wait for the next twist in this saga.
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Jane Buckthought
Advertising Consultant
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| The consumer video media services market is worth over $300 billion a year globally, with pay television accounting for 90% of that. In 2017, consumers will spend over $18 billion on subscription video-on-demand services like Netflix, up 28% on the previous year. Spending on such services will continue to rise, but pay television will still represent over 86% of direct consumer spending on video services in 2020.
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