(Aug 9, 2013) The research and analysis company IHS thinks the new flareWatch OTT service from U.S. cable operator Cox, which is in beta in Orange County, California, could show the entire Pay TV industry how to mitigate the threat from OTT. FlareWatch is said to be the first U.S. Pay TV operator-provided OTT subscription TV service that is not tied to a concurrent cable TV video purchase.
Read more at Videonet
By CASBAA Chief Policy Officer, John Medeiros
“The ability of multinational piracy syndicates to grab broadcast streams and distribute them globally with impunity means that developingcountry broadcasters are robbed of actual and potential markets around the world.”
Take the smartphone out of your pocket, and look it over. Imagine that the rules for making and using such devices today were the same as those in effect 50 years ago. But wait…..that’s not possible. Fifty years ago, nobody had mobile phones! The first handheld public-subscriber telephones were launched in the early 1970s. The first commercial communications satellite was launched in 1962, with direct broadcasting of television from satellites to homes following in the late 1980s. And in
the 1960s, the Internet was not even a dream.
So when the current international treaty governing the intellectual property (IP) aspects of broadcast programming, the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations, was agreed in 1961, no one could foresee the evolution of the global broadcasting environment – or the many ways in which broadcast programming could be grabbed and misused without the broadcaster’s consent. The Rome Convention set the international baseline for broadcasters’ IP with reference to a world of analog, closed-border, black-and-white broadcasting. That world is long gone, and the treaty protections for broadcasting organizations are in dire need of updating.
Asian broadcasters, like others around the world, believe this need is becoming ever-more urgent as the ways in which Asian broadcast signals are hijacked and sent flashing around the globe – polluting many markets and damaging the interests of broadcasters, creative industries and governments – continue to multiply. Asia is enjoying a huge boom in television consumption, as more and more people are connected to an increasing number of networks and consuming more programming. Broadcast streams are the foundation of that growth, but broadcasters who finance, generate and aggregate those streams are forced to stand by helplessly as others relay their broadcasts – live or deferred, by many different technical means – without their consent and without paying for that use.
To read the full article, click here
To read the full WIPO Magainze, click here
(Aug 7, 2013) Macau’s concessionaire broadcaster Cable TV and fourteen public antenna companies signed an agreement yesterday over broadcasting disputes. The agreement stipulates that the original TV signals will be provided by Cable TV and transmitted through the existing networks of the antenna companies. Viewers in Macau will receive approximately forty TV channels, the Bureau of Telecommunication Regulations (DSRT) stated.
Read more at Macau Daily Times
(Aug 7, 2013) PRIVATE use of TVRO (TV Receive Only) systems, locally known as “parabola” or satellite dish television, will be phased out within five years, the Ministry of Communications (MinComm) announced yesterday.
All imports of TVRO systems have been frozen and private use of TVRO will be banned by September 2018.
Read more at Brunei Times
(Aug 7, 2013) Chinese basketball fans will have seamless access on multiple mobile terminals to watch National Basketball Association games after the US-based organization signed a strategic agreement with Chinese Internet giant Sina Corp to develop better services.
Sina and the NBA signed an agreement and became strategic partners on Tuesday, three years after the two parties’ first alliance in 2010. According to the document, the two sides will undertake deep cooperation in terms of mobile broadcasting, community interaction and live video.
Read more at China Daily
(Aug 6, 2013) Some of the best TV shows these days, whether we’re watching them on television sets or online, are being compared to novels—and even sonnets. A chat with some of the leading thinkers in TV writing to find out what comes next.
Read more at The Morning News
(Aug 6, 2013) Twitter activity does help drive audience tune-in for TV shows according to a new study by Nielsen.
The research firm claims its Twitter Causation Study is the first to provide statistical evidence of a “two-way causal influence” between broadcast TV tune-in and Twitter conversation around that show, confirming what many in the industry have long suspected.
Read more at Digital TV Europe
Facebook and Twitter are stepping up their efforts to increase their share of the global TV ad budget as technical developments begin to enable advertisers to target people who use digital devices while watching TV.
As reported in the Financial Times, the two social network giants have been rolling out a number of initiatives over the summer in a bid to earn more from global TV adspend, which is expected to be worth $205bn this year.
Facebook has launched a campaign, dubbed “reach for the beach”, to highlight the fact that holidaymakers take their mobile phones with them while leaving their TVs at home.
It comes as recent research from eMarketer has shown that the amount of time people in the US spend consuming digital media will overtake the hours they spend watching TV for the first time this year.
Read more at Warc
(Aug 4, 2013) To understand why Hollywood is moving aggressively into making musicals for Broadway, just look out the eighth-floor office window of Jimmy Horowitz, the president of Universal Pictures.
On the studio lot below, along a route where trams of tourists roll by, is a black-and-green poster for the hit musical “Wicked.” Universal is the majority investor in the show, which has grossed $3 billion since 2003 from productions in New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, and dozens of other cities. More to the point: “Wicked” is on track to become the most profitable venture in the 101-year history of Universal, Mr. Horowitz acknowledged in an interview, more lucrative than its top-grossing movies like “Jurassic Park” and “E.T.” The show is an open-ended juggernaut, charging 10 times more per ticket than movie theaters do.
Read more at The New York Times
No agreement between Cable TV and government
August 2, 2013 – The Bureau of Telecommunications Regulation (DSRT) admitted yesterday that, to date, no agreement has been reached in the signal dispute between public antenna companies and Macau Cable TV. In a statement, the bureau said that “following several negotiations, since Cable TV’s opinion differs from the solution suggested by the government, it was not possible to reach a comprehensive consensus at this stage.”
Read more at Macau Daily Times
