23 June, 2017

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending June 23rd. 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 TVAddons site (which fueled ISD piracy using the Kodi software) remains offline. Meanwhile in the USA, Dish TV – which filed a suit against the site – is trying to uncover information about TVAddons owners.

Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore

The bar is continually being pushed forward in the TV business. Turner’s Super Deluxe is having success with a live telenovela where the audience is invited to play along by choosing plot twists in real time. It looks like Apple may FINALLY be getting serious about its ambitions in TV, as it has hired two veteran Sony executives. Netflix’s first interactive shows, where the viewer can shape the narrative through a series of decisions they make has arrived on their service. The show “Puss in Book” got a full two-thumbs-up from TV critic “Scarley-Bear” Lay (aged 8). And, as I mentioned a couple weeks back, Amazon is further moving towards being the pay-TV operator of the world by allowing Prime subscribers direct login to some of the networks’ standalone streaming apps, starting with HBO and Showtime.

Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant

The TRAI has announced its plan to unveil new rules about mobile pricing and tariffs for Indian telecom service providers within the next 6 weeks, following months of bickering between India’s top telcos. The purpose of the review is to bring transparency to the assessment of mobile tariffs, which has been a contentious issue ever since the telecom company, Reliance Jio, entered the Indian market in September 2016. Over the past several months, India’s telecom service providers have been accusing one another of disruptive pricing practices. The TRAI sought feedback on the issue earlier this February when it released a 32-page consultation paper to industry members. Despite all of the recent disputes, TRAI secretary, Sudhir Gupta, has stated that the regulator’s review of the Telecommunication Tariff Order (TTO) from 1999 is motivated by a need to address the significant technological changes that have occurred in the industry over the past 15 years.

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

Alarmed at reports that the Thai authorities may implement strict regulation of OTT sites, various experts have started to explain how difficult that would be. And free-speech advocates are also continuing to register opposition.

Kevin Jennings Vice President

The Sports marketing agency Total Sports Asia (TSA) has announced that it is launching a sports OTT service in Malaysia. The new service, called Sportsfix, will initially focus mainly on overseas foreign workers in Malaysia, who consume all their content on their mobile devices and probably don’t have access to a TV. Content could include live footage from Indonesian football and other “niche” programming where there isn’t enough demand for them to be carried on traditional FTA or pay channels. The service has currently signed deals with two mobile carriers and will launch in July.

Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant

For all you Canadians who are also Cantonese speakers (or don’t mind reading English subtitles) here’s an antipiracy video about the pernicious effects of ISDs produced by Chinese-language content companies active in Canada.