1 December, 2017

Things are heating up in New Zealand. Pay-TV operator Skyannounced that ithad won a preliminary court injunction against ISD sales by aChristchurch-based reseller, which as a result seems to have ceasedtrading. A case against a second pirate (Hamilton-based “My Way”) continues; that guy has saidhe intends to fight hard in the courts. He’s just a little guy, fightingthe “bullying” media industry, he says…… (Isn’t there another shyster pirate inNZ who pretends to be justan ordinary guy?) Ah, but there’s more: while announcing this initialvictory, Sky also declared it intended to file a suit demanding that ISPs blockegregious pirate sites. That produced a warof words with ISP operator Vocus, with allthe usual tech-industry voices claiming the real reason for piracy is thatlegit content isn’t available, and that legal OTT was “curing piracy.” (Funny,that’s not what Torrentfreakreported this week……)

Here’sa profile of Tickbox, the ISD-based piracy service in the USA that is thesubject of content industry suits aimed at closing down their illicit business.I predict that 10 years from now Tickbox will be known as the name of theprecedent-setting legal decision…..but the boxes will be gone.

Could it be coincidence? Two of the Commissioners fromTaiwan’s NCC attended CASBAA’s Policy Roundtable in Macau two weeks ago,obviously finding the focus of the discussions on ISDs useful. And thenthis week it emerges that the NCC is launching a crackdownon illicit TV boxes. The announcement is a good sign that at least some ofTaiwan’s authorities are taking the ISD problem seriously, but it’s not clearat this point how far the NCC can go, given that their focus is “the functionof the radio-frequency devices and not…the content that could be accessed bythem.” Meanwhile, in Australia, news that a long-establishedAustralian company selling pre-loaded IPTV boxes has been obliged to ceasepirating CASBAA member content. In an enforcement action brought jointly by CASBAA’s CAP and the newly-established ACEagainst “the-company-who-shall-not-be-named” the successful investigation andsubsequent closure of a prolific supplier sets a positive tone for plenty of2018 activity against piracy.

Two interesting columns about US developments: First, whydid the supposedly pro-business chief of the Justice Department’s AntitrustDivision decide to try to derail the AT&T/Time-Warner merger? Could theDepartment’s supposedly objective decision-making have been influenced by theCNN-hater in the White House? (The same guy who tried to pervert the FBI’sinvestigative process with demands for personal loyalty.) AT&T CEO Randall Stephensonimplied maybe so. He said “Ihave no evidence that there’s been inappropriate behavior. What I have is areally peculiar timeline.” And on another extreme decision – the FCC’s moveto not dismantle not just the burdensome Title II regulation, but virtuallyevery rule on net neutrality – it seems pretty clear that the whole thing isgoing to end up before the Supreme Court, as in doing so theFCC may have overplayed its legal hand.

Off the air in Pakistan: the government orderedall private TV channels to shut down for a few days, concerned about theirnews coverage of ongoing clashes between rioters and police near Islamabad.Apparently, theblackout didn’t last long. Channels were restored, and theLaw Minister resigned, giving the rioters the “scalp” they demanded.

By as earlyas 2020 half of all TV and video viewing will be done on a mobile screen,due to an increasing consumer preference for on-demand and catch-up TV overlinear viewing.This is according to Ericsson’slatest Mobility Report, which claims that mobile video traffic will grow byaround 50% annually through 2023 to account for 75% of all mobile data traffic.

Plethora of stories in OTT land this week. CASBAA membercompanies were all over it: “HBO CEO Richard Plepler said that thecompany will reevaluate its presence in most countries around the world overthe next few years, decidingwhether to launch over-the-top services directly to consumers, or ifit makes more sense to stay with existing deals.” NielsenMarketing Cloud launches in Asia Pacific with TVB as its first client,”The deal will largely be around building a data management platform forTVB and moving towards addressable TV and targeted ads for its OTTservice.” NickelodeonPlay app has launched with Telkomsel in Indonesia. For those notat ATF’sOTT panel, a summary here. Not covered were panelist’s comments about profitsand investment payback. Net net, Viu is keenly aware that profits matter,iflix and HOOQ are all about growing market share and Amazon ultimately wantsto sell you more stuff. For those putting up the Christmas tree thisweekend, find out WhichFireplace Video Is Right for You? Even more stores on CASBAA OTT Group Newsfeed.

A couple of regulatory updates from India this week. OnTuesday, the TRAIannounced its decision to uphold net neutrality regulations to ensure thatIndian consumers continue to receive uninhibited and non-discriminatory accessto the internet. This decision sees India go in the opposite direction of theUS, who last week announced its controversial plan to roll back net neutralitylaws. But just as the results of one consultation process are released, theIndian regulator is already set to begin another — TRAIhas stated that it will soon open a separate consultation process on theregulation of Over-the-Top (OTT) services, due to the “fast evolving natureof the sector and the changes that have taken place in the regulatory andpolicy framework” since it first opened the consultation process in early 2015.However, as a central part of the net neutrality debate, somepeople are wondering why OTT was not already included in Tuesday’srecommendations.

In Thailand, regulators banned a(nother) satellite TVchannel for 30 days. TV24 was accused of broadcasting unfair content; thechannel is sympathetic to former PM Thaksin Shinawatra. Interestingly, theKhaosod report on this states that thechannel remained free to disseminate its content online. Meanwhile,the troubled DTT industry went back for a third run at tryingto get government financial relief for the huge payments that channel ownersbid for licenses four years ago. So far, nobody’s willing to riskbeing accused of raiding the public treasury for the benefit of channel owners.

A recent reportfrom the BARB in the UK which looked at various demographics of TV viewinghabits in the UK, concluded that even though over 1 billion minutes of viewingtime are consumed on mobile devices, this equates in reality to only 1-1.5% ofadditional TV viewing. Interestingly, females account for 69% of on-demandviewing through TV player apps, whilst males dominate the live streamingviewing.

Unless you’ve been living on another planet or under a rock youwill no doubt have heard thisweek’s announcement that Britain’s PrinceHarry is engaged to Meghan Markle. It’s notonly TV in the UK that featured the storyand adjusted schedules to show the first official interviewas an engaged couple but broadcasters from across the globe are alreadyplanning how to accommodate covering the wedding which has been announced forMay 2018 and indeed, Ooyalaspeculates that the wedding coverage could break records for mobile TV viewing.Meanwhile we couldn’t help but smile when wefound this photo taken at the CASBAA Convention a couple of years ago.These are the things you miss when you don’t come to CASBAA!