(19 Feb, 2014) Content theft sites pushing pirated movies, music and TV programs made nearly a quarter of a billion dollars last year from advertising, according to a new study from the Digital Citizens Alliance.
The report, Good Money Gone Bad: Digital Thieves and the Hijacking of the Online Ad Business, found that the 30 largest piracy sites each stand to make more than $4 million a year in ad revenue.
Read more at World Screen
(7 Feb, 2014) With the inter-ministerial committee having endorsed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI’s) recommendations on ‘Monopoly/ Market Dominance in Cable TV Services’, the stage is set for the government to come out with guidelines on cable monopoly, said Information and Broadcasting (I&B) minister Manish Tewari.
Addressing the closing ceremony of the National Consultation on Women & Media in the capital, Tewari said that the government was in the process of issuing guidelines that would keep a check on cable monopolies that have cropped up in many states.
Read more Television Post
(4 Feb, 2014) Jakarta – Bakrie Group-owned media company PT Visi Media Asia Tbk (VIVA) will target launch of a pay television business in the first quarter of 2014 Viva Sky will be launched.
VIVA Chairman Anindya Bakrie said the current pay-TV business offers attractive investment opportunities. Public interest in pay-TV was high.
“Pay TV will launch during Quarter 1-2014. There is a slight delay, but funding is already available. Wait for the announcement,” he said at the Epicentrum complex, Kuningan, Jakarta, on Monday (03/02/2014).
To fund its business development, the company has planned capital expenditure (Capex) of Rp 1 trillion in 2014.
The capital expenditure will also be used for purposes other than the preparation for a pay-TV launch, such as expansion of its broadcast games studio. For the studio, the company set aside Rp 400 billion.
Bakrie said the capital would be derived from a variety of sources such as bank loans and proceeds from the Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Translated from the Indonesian. Original can be found here
A government-appointed research committee has urged the Macau government to provide a bouquet of free-TV channels to all households in the territory. According to news reports, the University of Macau-based committee urged the government to:
Unlike other markets in Asia, Macau has only very limited indigenous free-to-air TV, provided by public service broadcaster Televisao de Macau (TdM). For the past few decades, a handful of “antenna companies” have provided free-to-air signals from Hong Kong and China, as well as pirated pay-TV channels, to Macau households. The new arrangements proposed by the University would give the “antenna companies” a role in distributing the government-provided FTA content, and at the same time would represent a substantial restructuring and possibly clean-up of infringements in the sector.
Read more here
Read CASBAA’s previous reporting on this issue here
(23 Jan, 2014) Competition of pay television business in Indonesia is heating up this year. Based on data of Finance Today, two new pay-TV services will start operation in February 2014.
Read more at Indonesia Finance Today
(Dec 28, 2013) The two-day auctions for 24 digital TV channels ended yesterday with the national broadcasting regulator collecting 50.862 billion baht. Natee: Proceeds higher than expected Seven high-definition variety…
Read more at Bangkok Post
(Dec 25, 2013) One year into the implementation of digitisation, the cable and broadcast sector is still trying to iron out the creases and get systems in place. The delay in implementation of the various phases of digitisation has meant the promised jump in subscription revenues and average revenue per user (ARPU) has not materialised.
Read more at Business Standard
So far, lots of hope, but not much payment
Two recent articles described the developments and problems in Vietnam’s OTT television industry.
OTT (Over The Top) is an irresistible trend, not only in the telecom market. Even Vietnam’s TV service providers are joining in. So far, VTVcab, FPT Telecom and VTC have jumped into the market, but user fees are proving hard to get.
VTVcab is the first official service provider; its service branded VTV Plus began in January 1/2013. It is the product of cooperation between VTVcab and the Communications Network and Services Corp. (Medianet Corporation). This application allows you to view multiple live TV channels, additional features and especially the completely new experience for interactive television.
VTV Plus allows viewers to recognize the device being used to select the signal flow and appropriate resolution to help the audience watch TV with the best quality on all devices, even though in motion.
Mr. Pham Anh Chien, Medianet Chairman, said VTV Plus offers coverage on all display systems (iOS, Android and Windows Phone, as on every screen phone, tablet, PC, Laptop or SmartTV.) Consumers need only to download the app; the channels provided on the system are on VTV VTVcab Plus
FPT Telecom provides its FPT Play app on the Apple and Google app stores. Since its initiation in 10/2013, FPT Play has attracted over 100,000 users downloads and installations.
FPT Play offers about 85 channels including SD and HD signals, and integrated entertainment features such as music videos, and television shows. It also has the ability to identify types of clients connected, so that the conversion quality can match. This enables users to see the contents with stable quality on all types of connections including 3G or WIFI. It also offers automatic notification to users of compelling new content.
Mr. Vu Anh Tu, Chief Technology Officer of FPT Telecom, said FPT Play’s superiority is the ability to transmit stable, high quality and rich content. In the upcoming version of FPT Play “Play HD” will provide connectivity between the two products, allowing users to interact better with the TV and use the content in a consistent manner on all TV screens, tablets, and mobile devices.
VTC has developed “VTC Play” OTT over the past year. It offers software support for both iOS and Android and the most common set top box receivers in the common market. VTC is running technical trials, allowing phone and tablet users to download the software, as well as laptops connected to the site.
Autumn is for testing fees
VTV Plus began offering service from 01.01.2013 and from 01.07.2013 began testing fees. To date, there are more than 2.5 million registered user accounts. However, Pham Anh Chien said, despite the high numbers there is very little payment. This despite the fact that VTV Plus gives viewers flexibility in payment – they can use monthly, weekly or even daily subscription, or pay per view of premium subscriber content.
“The amount of growth is very good but so far it is mainly free users; amounts paid are very little,” Chien said. Currently VTV Plus is still in the investment stage; its next task is to create a set of paying customers. Mr. Chien said that OTT TV is full of potential service providers, all of which hope to collect user fees from the content or through interactive TV services.
Mr. Vu Anh Tu said, FPT Play is currently being offered free of charge to all users. Commercialization of digital entertainment apps in Vietnam will take a long time and require particularly well-thought commercial strategies to take account of the special ways of thinking and style of the Vietnamese consumer. The evidence is that a lot of users already access online sites to watch movies that are full of ads, and even malware (malicious software such as viruses, trojans, etc.). The only reason they will tolerate this is to see a DVD-quality movie for free.
In addition, FPT Telecom views mobiles and tablets as a component of the ecosystem of products catering to video services — it provides user priority for Vietnam’s FPT Telecom products.
Similarly, Le Hoang Son – VTC Digital Director said, VTC will provide free services as well as services to its customers. But in the long run, for increased content, customers will have to be charged.
(This is a machine-assisted translation of the original article in Vietnamese, which can be found here)
2 December 2013 – A court in France has ordered Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to block 16 video-streaming sites from their search results.
The case was brought by five groups representing film companies, distributors and producers.
The High Court in Paris ruled the websites were dedicated to the “distribution of works without consent of their creators”.
Several internet service providers were also ordered to block the sites.
Read more at BBC News
(Dec 1, 2013) Australian pay TV operator Foxtel has announced it will launch broadband internet and fixed-line telephony services bundled with its television product. The announcement follows approval by Foxtel’s shareholders Telstra and News Australia, and the execution of a wholesale agreement with Telstra.
The agreement with Telstra enables Foxtel to sell fixed-line broadband and telephony services nationally on both Telstra’s ADSL network and the National Broadband Network (NBN) as it is progressively deployed.
Read more at C+T
