8 December, 2017

You may have seen last month the FBI in the US namedthe hacker responsible for leaking Game of Thrones from HBO servers and forattemptedextortion. While announcing the indictment charges andnaming an Iranian national, the Manhattan  court official borrowed thefamous ‘Winter is Coming’ dialogue from the series and said: “For hackers whotest our resolve in protecting our intellectual property — even those hidingbehind keyboards in countries far away — eventually,winter will come.” Rather depressingly social media feeds have subsequentlyfeatured commentsfrom people who actually thankedthe hacker for stealing and even questioned why the FBI was gettinginvolved, although thankfully these people do seem to be inthe minority and are brought to task.

For years, ISPs across many countries have resisted requeststo help in the fight against online piracy by blocking infringing websites, butfrom Canada, comes a sign that the tides appear to be changing. Acoalition of major Canadian media companies, including ISPs, is planning to putforward a proposal to the Canadian Radio-television and TelecommunicationsCommission (CRTC) to implement its own site blocking program. The proposedplan would see the creation of a new agency that would be responsible formaintaining a blacklist of infringing websites and ensuring that those sitesare blocked. However, there’sbeen controversy surrounding the proposal’s suggestion that ISPs should beable to block infringing websites without first having to obtain permissionfrom the court. Critics of the proposal have framed this as an assault on netneutrality… but net neutrality is supposed ensure open and non-discriminatoryaccess to lawful sites on the internet – clearly, pirate sites don’t fall intothis category.  And even if piracy site blocking did concern netneutrality, successful site blocking regimes in other countries, such as theUK, have demonstrated that an open Internet and blocking access to illicitstreaming sites are not mutually exclusive. The proposal is set to be putforward by the end of the month, but howit will be received remains to be seen. In any case, the willingness ofISPs to engage in the fight against online piracy is a positive step forward.

Site blocking is also an issue in NZ, as reported last week.Here’s agood summary of the legal issues in NZ, which notes that the law is not assecure for content protection there, as it now is in Australia.

The ad sales forecasts are being published and GroupM, the media investment arm of WPP, forecasts global ad growth of 4.3% in2018 and predicts Google and Facebook will strengthen their stranglehold ondigital advertising and set to attract 84 per cent of global spending ondigital advertising, excluding China, in 2017, underscoring concerns that thetwo technology companies have become a digital duopoly.

Another leading forecaster Zenithlowered itsprediction for global advertisingexpenditure growth in 2018 to 4.1 percent to reach $578 billion by the end ofthe year, with marginal downgrades in North America, Western Europe and AsiaPacific.

Good news for our Pay-TV members, a report just out suggeststhatChina and India will account for half the global pay-TV subscribers by 2022.And, whilst forecasts for pay-TV subscribers suggest that by 2022 they willhave dropped in the US and flat-lined in the EU, here in Asia the subscribernumbers will increase by 92m between 2016 to 2022. So we can officially saypay-TV is not dead.

Targeted OTT news for the week: Of course you have heard alot about the possible Disney purchase of some Fox assets, here Varietylooks at it specifically from the perspective of OTT. Facebook wants to getinto the live sports business and wantsto spend a “few billion dollars” on global rights…said with thecasualness of, “going to the pub for a few pints.” Still onsports, there is a report that StarIndia will introduce VR for IPL in 2018. U.S. television executives believethat Liveand linear becomes more valuable in fragmented OTT landscape. Couldless demand really make something more valuable. It’s all about using techand bringing together all parties in the value stream. And, a funny one tofinish off: The Mass-Media Brothers, “Newspaper” and “Television” are atthe cutting edge, catching the latest waves…Zeitgeist, shaping culture and allthat. Gotta remember, “bemore than you have been…tense your core.” More OTT stories atthe CASBAA OTT GroupNewsFeed.

Ah yes, the copyright wars are fought on strangebattlefields: aUS porn firm is using judicial processes to reveal names and addresses ofthousands of broadband subscribers whose IP addresses are used to downloadpirate porn. Jeez, how would that go down in Asia? Would the goodburghers of Singapore want it revealed that they pass time viewing the likes of “LusciousLena,” “Perfect Pussycat,” “Sultry Hot Summer,” or “Wet Perfection?” Orworse??? Make you nervous? Safer to watch some YouTube; somehow Googlemanages to keep porn off their site. (Butnot piracy….that’s too tough a challenge.)

Whilst all eyes remain focussed on the AT&Tbid for TIme Warner in the US and speculationover a partial Fox takeover by Disney, or Comcast, over in the UK the Competitionand Markets Authority(CMA) has postponed the date to publish it’s initialfindings on the proposed takeover of Sky by Fox. We can now expect the initialverdict in January, instead of December, due to the amount of evidence it hasreceived, including over 12,000 submissions. And despite the potential takeoverin the US, analysts suggest that the CMAis still likely to continue its examination of the UK takeover.

Kodi (the legit software company) hatesTVAddons, their evil half-brother which promotes distribution of piracy“add-ons” to turn Kodi’s software into a font of pirated content. Contentindustry interests in Canada got TVAddons’ “repository” closed down, but now…..they’reBAAACK. Time will tell if they can lure developers back to their damagedbrand.  

Earlier this year the Pakistani regulatory body started toflex its muscles a little more and began to crack down harder on broadcasterinfringements. This move has pushed the Pakistani Prime Minister torecently ask Pemrato withdraw cases where stays have been granted to different TV channelsagainst the fine imposed by the regulator. It seems things are coming to ahead with the news that there are around 500 such cases that are not only eatingup legal fees from the public purse but offenders areallowed to continue broadcasting. Issues such as broadcasting withouta licence and violation of codes of conduct are apparently goingunpunished oncethe broadcasters receive the stay order. Another angle from some quartersalleges that PEMRAis not employing top dollar experienced lawyers due to budgetaryconstraints which is further slowing the whole litigation and court process.

Over in Thailand the rumours abound about the make-up of thenew NBTC, with news that thenew acting secretary-general is to be named in January after the departureof the current secretary-general Takorn Tantasith. Unfortunately, we’re noteven expecting to see the names of the potential new NBTC members until Marchor April next year despite the term of the previous NBTC ending in Octoberthis year.

Magna Apac forecasts are projected to climb 5.9% next yearto hit USD$165bn (£122.35bn). The region would remain the second-largestglobally, in terms of ad spend, behind North America’s USD$206bn (£152.75bn),according to Magna’slatest industry forecasts. The report pointed to Sri Lanka, India, andPakistan as the fastest-growing markets in Asia-Pacific, each clocking growthrates of 12% in 2018.

So here’s the latest in the Taiwan cable rate struggles: itseems that various cable operators are trying to institute very skinnypackages, but theNCC is pushing back, saying they are TOO skinny, and don’t have enough of the meatychannels that people expect in their cable bundle. Of course, behind allthis is the content industry’s all-consuming worry about reach and ad revenue –if the basic bundle is too skinny, then nobody gets a crack at those eyeballs.

We’ve featured a few adverts in the run up to Xmas but the animalcharity WWF is in the running for the most emotional in the list of Christmasadverts 2017 in the UK with its harrowing  Just Like Us advert to highlightpoaching and the illegal ivory trade. Featuring a herd of elephants, thepowerful one-minute film reveals the devastating loss an elephant feels when itsees its herd attacked and killed by poachers for their tusks.It’s the latest effort from global conservation charity WWF which is appealing for urgent donations to helpfund its work worldwide, including bringing down the illegal wildlife trade.

Christmas is coming and the voice of pester power growsever louder, CASBAA research committee member Kirsty Bloore, (Director forViacom Aus and NZ) explains howChildren are more influential than ever in their parent’spurchase decisions as gender roles and relationships change in families, newresearch shows. “It’s not ‘pester power’ anymore Kids are fully involved in thefamily conversations,” she told the recent Marketing to Mums conference inSydney. “And parents are really looking to them for theirguidance and advice.”