13 December 2012, KUALA LUMPUR: The Information, Communications and Culture Ministry is in the process of strengthening the existing regulations on television advertisements to ensure a more effective monitoring.

Its deputy minister, Datuk Joseph Salang, said the requirement for advertisements to be issued with the made-in Malaysia (MIM) certificate to be aired on television was still applicable.

“This certificate is only issued for advertisements produced by local advertising producers.

“Foreign-made advertisement can only be used as foreign footage, but should not take more than 30 per cent of the advertisements to be aired,” he said when winding-up the debate on the Supply Bill 2013 in the Dewan Negara Thursday.

Salang also said the question of unfair division in the performance slot at Istana Budaya should not arise as the matter had been set, with 70 per cent for local artistes, and the remaining for international artistes, every year.

http://www.malaysiandigest.com/news/36-local2/193632-tv-ad-regulations-to-be-strengthened.html

(13 December 2012) MUMBAI: There could soon be caps on market shares of multi-system operators (MSOs) and local cable operators (LCOs) in a city, district, state and the country.

The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry is keen that competition emerges in some states where monopolies have got created in the absence of any market share regulations and such monopolies do not form in other states, through reasonable restrictions on MSOs and LCOs.

The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry on Thursday asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for its views on imposing of restrictions to prevent monopolies and the measures to prevent monopolistic operations by MSOs and LCOs.

Read more at Indiantelevision.com

Related story: Centre wants to regulate cable monopolies, cross-media holdings (The Hindu)

The ‘Mad Men’ Economic Miracle

(December 4, 2012) Three months ago, “Breaking Bad” cut off its fifth and final season on a maddening cliffhanger. Just as the D.E.A. agent Hank Schrader realized that his mild-mannered brother-in-law was actually a coldblooded meth lord, the show’s rabid viewership also realized that it would need to wait until the summer, when the season resumes, to find out what happens next. For fans like me, it has been and will continue to be an interminable wait.

For AMC, the network that broadcasts “Breaking Bad,” it will be a very profitable one. Cliffhangers may have been around for more than a thousand years — since at least the composition of “One Thousand and One Nights” — but no one has monetized them as brilliantly as cable networks. In order to get paid, Charles Dickens had to sell the next chapter of his serialized novels; in order to sell advertising, ABC had to order more episodes of its hit show “Lost.” But for the next several months, AMC is converting our eagerness into millions of dollars without showing a single new episode.

Cable TV has developed one of the most clever business models in our modern economy. Until recently, AMC was a basic-cable backwater known for “Threes Stooges” marathons. But a few years ago, it tweaked its business and began offering two or three hours of original programming on a few dozen nights a year. Starting with “Mad Men” in 2007, the network landed hit shows that developed small but obsessive followings. Soon after, it began making larger financial demands of the cable and satellite providers, like Comcast and DirectTV, that carry the network. AMC now charges these providers about 40 cents a month for each subscriber, including the millions who will never watch “Mad Men” or “Breaking Bad.” These providers can refuse to pay up, but doing so would infuriate legions of vocal viewers. (Last summer, the Dish Network played chicken with AMC and lost.) AMC collects $30 million a month in fees alone on a base of 80 million subscribers, which is pretty good considering that the last episode of “Breaking Bad” had fewer than three million viewers.

Read more at The New York Times

3 Dec 2012 – Cable Thai Holdings (CTH) has set itself the target of having at least 1 million subscription packages of the English Premier League to break even during the coming three seasons from 2013/14 season.

It is also aiming for Bt10 billion revenue by the end of next year.

Chief financial officer Vanchai Srisuchon said last week that CTH would pay Bt9.94 billion, excluding tax and related expenses, for live audio-visual rights to televise the English Premier League in the coming three seasons (2013/14 to 2015/16 seasons).

Given this huge investment, the company was working on a business plan, Vanchai said, adding that the initial price of subscription packages must, however, be accessible for local sports fans.

Read more: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/CTH-aims-to-sell-1m-EPL-subscription-packages-to-b-30195459.html

7 Dec 2012 – NAGRA, the digital TV division of the Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S), and Kantar Media, an audience research and competitive intelligence company, have announced plans to collaborate in the area of subscriber behaviour, giving service providers the ability to capitalise on the wealth of data available through in-home devices while fully ensuring viewer privacy. The service will be available pre-integrated with OpenTV 5, NAGRA’s newest and most open media convergence platform, taking advantage of its multi-device TV measurement capabilities.

“By combining Kantar Media’s world-class experience in audience measurement and research with our newest multi-device, multi-service technology, we are giving our customers access to some of the most advanced reporting and analysis capabilities available today,” said Samir Mehta, Senior Vice President, DTV Solutions for NAGRA. “Together, we’re making it possible for them to capture critical subscriber generated information such as PVR and advertising interactions and taking a major step toward enriching and personalising the television experience.”

Read more: http://www.content-technology.com/mediabusiness/?p=1132&utm_source=C%2BT-Mail+AsiaPacific-07-12-12&utm_campaign=C%2BTmail+07-12-12&utm_medium=email

7 Dec 2012 – The Satellite Television Association (Thailand) is threatening to sue the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) if the watchdog imposes “double taxation” on satellite TV operators.

The association is preparing a petition for the Administrative Court against a new NBTC regulation imposing a licensing fee of 2% on satellite TV operators’ annual revenue and a 2% universal service obligation (USO) tax on the same revenue.

Read more: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/324929/nbtc-faces-legal-threat

(December 6, 2012) SYDNEY/NEW YORK: The television continues to be the central hub for Australians’ screen activity, according to the latest Australian Multi-Screen Report, which shows that viewers in the country are watching around 100 hours per month of broadcast TV on a traditional set.

The report, which combines data from OzTAM, Regional TAM and Nielsen, finds that 95 percent of all video viewing is on the traditional TV set. The combination of all other extended screens—PC, mobile, etc—for any video content still accounts for just 5 percent of the video consumption. Live viewing accounts for nearly 93 percent of that viewing and playback viewing is accounting for nearly 7 percent. So, the slight decline in live broadcast viewing has been offset by the increase in playback viewing, keeping broadcast TV as a whole steady.

Read more at World Screen

December 4, 2012/LOS ANGELES — Walt Disney Studios said on Tuesday that it had completed a deal to show films from its Disney, Pixar and Marvel banners on Netflix, replacing a less lucrative pact with Starz.

The agreement is the first time one of Hollywood’s big studios has chosen Web streaming over pay television. Netflix has made similar “output” deals with smaller movie suppliers like DreamWorks Animation and the Weinstein Company. But all of the majors — Disney, Paramount, Universal, Warner Brothers, Sony and 20th Century Fox — have stayed with Starz, HBO or Showtime until now.

Read more at The New York Times

Related story http://www.fox28.com/story/20258655/netflix-outbids-pay-tv-for-rights-to-disney-movies

Reltated story http://in.news.yahoo.com/hollywood-sees-licensing-cash-cow-disney-netflix-deal-192907350.html

November 30, 2012/New Delhi: The country’s VSAT, teleport and DTH companies, which use satellite-based communication systems, have questioned the “unrealistic” target and the intention of the department of space (DoS) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) to meet the steep shortfall in satellite capacity through foreign operators. The domestic operators have accused the DoS and Isro of favouring foreign operators over Indian companies keen on launching indigenous satellite systems.

The protest from home-grown communication companies comes against the backdrop of what they say is Isro’s “failure” to meet its target of providing 500 transponders in the 11th Plan period (2007-12) and also increasing it to around 800 transponders in the 12th Plan period (2012-17), without opening up the sector. Between 2007-12, Isro operationalised only 187 transponders on its satellite system.

Read more at The Financial Express

December 2, 2012 – The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, has announced a package of measures to ensure that Australian content continues to be seen on Australian television.

“Free-to-air television plays an important part in our lives, and seeing Australian stories told on TV is vital in reflecting and maintaining our Australian identity, character and diversity,” Senator Conroy said. “To make sure that we keep being able to watch Australian content, we are taking a number of steps to enable commercial television broadcasters to continue to invest in and broadcast Australian content.”

Read more at Content + Technology Magazine