News Views

4 March, 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending March 4th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

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John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	We got some press in interesting places, with our release this week of the study of OTT-TV and Pay-TV regulation “Same Same but Different”. Of course, there was coverage in Asian economic publications. But elsewhere, too: the Nasdaq over-the-counter market decided we were newsworthy. And some enterprising soul translated our press release into Spanish, for the benefit of the Latin American market. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, Communications and Broadcasting Minister Amy Adams gave a speech saying the results of her government’s convergence review will be published “over the next few months.” I should have gotten her to write the forward for the Same Same book – I couldn’t say it better myself: “as Government we’re thinking about what regulation means in a world that is increasingly borderless…where our domestic businesses face their biggest competition from offshore providers in a greater way than ever before and yet those competitors operate under different regulatory systems and cost structures.” Yes!! (Members can download the new book here, and anyone who wants a hard copy should email us.)
Christopher Slaughter CEO	More politicking around the BBC’s Royal Charter renewal, with the publication of an independent report commissioned by the UK government calling for the BBC Trust to be dismantled and the Corporation to be overseen by government regulator Ofcom. The oft-beleagured BBC Trust was only created in 2006, the last time the BBC’s Royal Charter was renewed, replacing a board of governors that was itself fraught with governance challenges. There is a lot more to the report (all 98 pages can be found here, if you’re into that kind of thing), and it is already being debated vigorously; expect more skirmishes to come as the Charter renewal clock keeps winding down toward its year-end deadline.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Newton’s third law of motion, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, is sort of playing out in the media world with regard to the budgets for program acquisition. Netflix’s $5 Billion Budget Sets Off an Arms Race in Cable. “Discovery Communications, Viacom and Starz have all said in recent weeks that they must spend more on programming.” “If you are a TV network executive, you aren’t wired to walk into your boss’ office and say, ‘Revenues are under pressure, here’s what I think we should do — cut back on programming.”’
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water… the Net Neutrality debate heats up again in the US, pitting FCC board members against each other during a hearing in the US Senate. After all, it’s only been a year… Of course, it’s Washington, so the whole thing is completely politicized, surprise surprise, with much resurfacing of old accusations that the Obama Administration leaned on the FCC to produce the outcome the politicians wanted. (Of course, there were also accusations that having an industry lawyer as the FCC Chair was like putting a dingo in charge of babysitting.) Anyway, since it’s an election year don’t expect the subject to go away. Depending on which candidate wins, the policy could be very different in 2017.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Speaking of US election tomfoolery, if you missed John Oliver’s take-down of Donald Trump on HBO’s Last Week Tonight, you’re in for a treat. Almost as much of a treat as a lemur with a banana. I went ahead and installed “The Drumpfinator” Chrome extension, and not only does it work as advertised, but it has provided tremendous amusement ever since.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Recently CASBAA member GroupM predicted, as part of a global report, that digital advertising ad-spend is slated to grow the fastest in India. But could the Indian government’s move to tax from April 1, 2016 digital advertising — wags here have termed it “Google Tax’ — slow its faster adoption and spread? However, the government justifies it as a legitimate move. Is the operation of likes of Netflix next on government radar to tap for additional revenues?
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	In antipiracy news this week, the police in Japan launched an enforcement blitz and arrested 44 people for downloading pirated content (music, videos, manga, anime, or software). Swedish police seem to have apprehended the guy behind the largest streaming site in that country – the warrant for his arrest stated he’d made at least $1.7 million from sales of advertising around stolen copyrighted works. And in New York, Russian TV sued US internet companies that have been illegally distributing the Russian channels. (They were likely emboldened by the success of Chinese channels, including member company TVB, which won a suit against a black box syndicate a few months ago.) Maybe someday foreign channels will be able to go after Chinese and Russian web server operators hosting illegal channel streams, too. I’m not holding my breath.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	The head of the U.K.’s institute of practitioners in advertising, Lynne Robinson said tech firms operating in media markets must be more open about how they constructed their datasets. “They only give a partial view of the market, and it is not often clear how something has been calculated,” she warned. “If they are comparing their data to other media datasets, how have they calculated that impact? “We need far more transparency.”
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Okay, I’m dating myself (and potentially confusing people about my citizenship), but I got very excited when Eugene Levy was quoted as saying there could be a 40th anniversary reunion for the iconic Canadian sketch comedy SCTV. It was a hotbed of great talent, who generated some immortal characters, and some of my favorite scenes ever (“Tom Monroe” signing “Turning Japanese” and “What Fits Into Mother Russia” stand out, among many others.) Of course, won’t be the same without John Candy and Harold Ramis, but if it happens, it will still be great.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	SCTV? OIC……but there’s another SCTV. (Saigontourist Cable Television – the largest cable operator in HCMC). And there are stakes up for sale in that company and the big Hanoi operator VTVCable. (If you buy into SCTV, you’ll have Saigontourist Holding Company as your partner, which could be good, as they are government-owned and well-connected, but may be bad, as they are government-owned…..)
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Re/code just released the full interview with Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton. The first part of it deals with TV. Go straight to the transcript to save time. Lynton talks about Netflix being forced to create its own content because other companies won’t sell to them, the “happy accident” of the current TV boomlet and how the hack has got him using the fax machine again.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	The Indian media industry initially bemoaned the government ignored key issues related to the industry in the Union Budget, but it seems all is not lost. Probably trying to give digitisation a leg-up, the government slashed duties on some electronic components from 12.5 to 4 % — and this will or should make STBs cheaper.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Why do advertisers ignore the over 50s? Is it the darn youthfulness of agency staff or something else?
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	It can be, in a way, termed return of the prodigal. Having had to sell out control of TV18 Group/IBN Network to Mukesh Ambani, media entrepreneur Raghav Bahl, founder of Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd, which operates news website thequint.com, has signed a joint venture agreement with New York-based Bloomberg LP to launch a co-branded television news channel and website, according to media reports.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	And the censors keep rolling along…….In China, and India anyway. Meanwhile, there was some push-back against the censors in Indonesia this week. KPI was hit for bias against women, and not respecting the “essence of democracy.”

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Member News

25 February 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Feb 26th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

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Christopher Slaughter CEO	After more than a decade of work on its Copyright Bill, the Hong Kong Government now appears ready to throw in the towel on the whole thing. Months of delaying tactics by anti-government legislators, coupled with shrill sloganeering by “copy-left” activists — all of which has been happening at the start of an election cycle — have mired the bill in a legislative morass. But the tipping point appears to have been a simple mis-count; only 34 legislators were counted during a quorum call in LegCo, when there were actually 35 present. Unfortunately, even though the count was wrong, the Legislature was adjourned anyway. That was enough to prompt Commerce and Economic Development Secretary Greg So to say “Enough is enough.” If the bill doesn’t pass a LegCo vote next week, it will be shuffled to the bottom of the deck, effectively killing it.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The proposed merger deal in South Korea between SK Telecom and CJ Hellovision has run into serious flak. Academics have been criticizing the merger, and they were recently joined by trade unions. The biggest concern is that this huge vertical acquisition could stunt competition in So. Korea, and there were many calls for the government to review it carefully. CJ wanted to get its shareholders to approve the deal this week, but under relevant media law, it seems such a move may be illegal. The forecast is for continued stormy weather.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	I just love it when an interviewer doesn’t pull any punches. Re/code senior editor Peter Kafka does a great interview with ESPN President, John Skipper, at Code/Media 2016. As a channel that has taken a few punches in the chin of late, it’s interesting to see how one of the most basic channels of basic-cable looks at the network’s future and how they plan to make sure the business keeps on growing. Skipper: "We were the first in the market with authenticated television…all of our content is over-the-top.” And speaking of OTT sports, have a look at this comprehensive piece: Ex-stream-ly Frustrating: The Messy Ecosystem of Live Sports Streaming.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Elsewhere in the world of “sports”, Microsoft is offering US$2.5 million in prize money for its Halo World Championship next month, cementing a trend that isn’t going to go away. In case you hadn’t noticed, last year, eSports events paid out more than US$62 million in winnings, and generated more than US$20 million in ticket sales. If — like most people in our industry — you don’t really understand what’s going on with this whole eSports thing, join us Tuesday in Singapore for our eSports panel at the CASBAA OTT Summit to find out more.
Yegee Chun Regulatory Assistant	A loaded Android box advertising free television for life has surfaced in Canada. The so-called Free TV Box allows unlimited access to commercial-free, copyrighted content with a one-time payment of about CA$150. Canadian law does prohibit services that exist primarily for the purpose of "enabling copyright infringement," but Canada’s Copyright Act only addresses unauthorized downloading, not streaming, of copyrighted content. Given this legal grey area, one citizen who sells boxes from his home advises: “It’s up to yourself to decide if it’s immoral.”
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Time Inc. is in the news this week with a small deal that’s done and a BIG deal that’s rumored. The done deal is about Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated returning to cable and satellite TV in Asia. Under a pact with Hong Kong-based sports programmer ASN, the parties will develop a Sports Illustrated-branded sports broadcasting and digital network. Debuting this spring, the deal will see, the ASN and ASN2 pay-TV sports channels, companion websites and mobile apps rebranded as “Sports Illustrated” and “Sports Illustrated 2.” Time’s BIG deal is rumored to be their interest in buying Yahoo’s “core business”. This deal is anything but done with Verizon and AT&T also looking at a transaction.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	At the Media 360 Summit on Thursday in Hong Kong, Google’s Scott Beaumont shared a few numbers predicting that over the next five years the number of people connecting to the internet will increase by a further 2 BILLION, with a large proportion of those people coming from Asia. These remarkable predictions should add more urgency in ensuring that broadcasters are clear on any future internet OTT plans. Coincidentally the CASBAA OTT Summit is being held on Tuesday 1st March in Singapore, and will take a closer look at the OTT industry. Space is now limited so register now to secure a place.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	comScore has rolled out its mobile audience solution Mobile Metrix in the Philippines, providing measurement of total mobile audience behaviour across smartphones and tablets. In the US, Comscore has joined with Rentrak and announced plans to introduce a new cross-platform TV measurement product, to take on Nielsen’s TV ratings. The product will have information on TV and connected device viewing on a monthly basis and as they say “combine scale with smarter methodology”.

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Member News

19 February 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Feb 18th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

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Christopher Slaughter CEO	Here in Hong Kong, a four-way meeting between copyright owners, internet activists, government officials and legislators to discuss the stymied Copyright Bill accomplished nothing but another stalemate, particularly over amendments covering “fair use”. It’s been difficult for CASBAA and our allies to get a nuanced discussion going over the whole thing, but finally, the South China Morning Post has warned HK’s copy-left groups to be careful what they ask for, pointing to a submission by PwC to the Australian Productivity Commission (which is looking into economic aspects of IP reform) on the costs and benefits of introducing a fair use exception to copyright laws. The report cites the closures of a publisher and copyright collection agency in Canada, and a 50% decline in growth rates in Singapore’s creative industries which accompanied adoption of such provisions in those markets, and says such data needs to be considered when looking at moving to a “fair use” system. “There is no firm evidence supporting a direct causational relationship between fair use and improved economic outcomes…” Let’s see if this helps push things along in HK… (breath not being held).
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The hot news for this week is that Singapore’s courts issued the first copyright-related site blocking order, ordering that access to solarmovie.ph be blocked. The request for blocking, brought by the MPA, was the first test case under site-blocking provisions enacted in late 2014. Within days, Australian film distributor Village Roadshow announced that it would be bringing a test case against the same site, under Australia’s new copyright site blocking law. (It’s already blocked in the UK.) It took quite a bit of preparation to bring the first cases (nobody wants to cut corners and lose a test case!) but now that the path has been cleared, expect more petitions to the courts in Singapore and eventually Australia. Aussie torrent fan sites declared their “disappointment” at the block, but were happy that efforts seem to have foundered to implement graduated response (3-strikes) for piracy downloaders in Oz.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	Wait a minute, if “The future of TV is apps”… then what is Apple doing getting into original TV production with Dr. Dre? Oh, wait a minute… Dr. Dre is behind Beats, which Apple bought, so it’s really just about promoting Apple Music. And yes, the rumors from last summer turn out to be true, Apple apparently does have a lot of music video projects in the works — and if you are among those who feel slightly urky when you watch that Drake video “Hotline Bling”, yep, you have Apple to blame.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	More changes at the BBC, with reports in the UK press about a radical management overhaul, designed to streamline and simplify the org structure at Auntie. This comes just a week after a scathing report from the Commons Media Select Committee, which called for scrapping the BBC Trust, among other things. Of course, it’s the Beeb, so there are plenty of divergent opinions on this whole Charter business; expect the governance tug-of-war to continue right up until the current Royal Charter expires on December 31st.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Meanwhile, youth-oriented channel BBC Three has gone online only, following a plan announced back in 2014. The move was not without its opponents, who mounted a protest campaign (online, no irony there) and got more than 300,000 signatures on a petition to save the channel, to no avail. CBS talk show host and BBC Three alumnus James Corden introduced the final programme broadcast on the linear channel, an episode of his show “Gavin and Stacey”, before the feed was turned off for good.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Censorship issues reared their head(s) in three disparate jurisdictions this week. In Japan, the Communications Minister got into hot water for threatening to revoke licenses for TV stations that are insufficiently balanced in their reporting. An industry observer told Mainichi that the Minister was “creating a mood that will reduce the degree of broadcasting freedom.” The focus in the UK was more prosaic: regulator Ofcom announced it was going to – well , not censor, but require porn websites to implement firm age verification technologies. Keeping children off the porn sites is a good thing – pay-TV operators with adult programming have been implementing age/parental controls for years. But can Ofcom get the online industry to comply? We’ll see… sanctions for violators could include civil penalties, ad blocking and even site blocking.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	But the real controversy of the week arose in Indonesia, where the regulators at KPI continue to provide plenty of fodder for critiques. This week’s initiative came under the camouflage of “child protection,” and involves a ban on “promotion” of LGBT activities (which means depiction of LGBT people). It’s really part of an ongoing demonization of gay Indonesians by religious activists. There was an immediate wave of criticism from Human Rights organizations, who pointed out that UNICEF and the UN Committee on Rights of the Child call for “raising the awareness of the public on equality and non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” Indeed, when KPI promulgated their 2012 broadcast standards, they prohibited programs that stigmatize “people of certain sexual orientation and gender identity.” Guess they changed their mind.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	How to pivot your business from a “traditional” media company into a new digital player? Well, nothing could be more “traditional” that an old U.S. terrestrial broadcaster catering to an older demo. There is a lot to learn from the story of CBS’s move into digital video. Get this, CBS All Access (their OTT service), “… not only puts $6 per month per subscriber in CBS Corp.’s pocket, but also brings in some advertising dollars as well — about $4 a month per customer.” Two great stories for you, “Here’s Why CBS Is The Future Of Television No One Saw Coming (Except Les Moonves)” and “Exclusive: With full power at CBS, CEO Moonves sees more aggressive move to digital”.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Notwithstanding the social churn taking place in India, the PM Modi-led government has been trying to ease some norms for doing business in India. Even if they may be small steps. Rajyavardhan Rathore, junior minister for MIB, said the government has done away with the requirement of taking security clearances from the Ministry of Home Affairs for existing broadcasters during launch of new TV channels from their stable. Well done and we hope the good intentions don’t get tripped by bureaucracy.
Yegee Chun Regulatory Assistant	Indonesia’s leading telco, state-owned Telkom, has decided to block Netflix for noncompliance with local regulations and concerns around “porn” and “radicalism”. Officials claim the ban will be lifted once Netflix obtains the appropriate permits and meets censorship requirements. This surely does not come as a great surprise, after prior clashes between regulators and foreign TV channels over similar issues. But so far it’s only Telkom doing the blocking; competing telcos are racing to promote Netflix access on their networks. Meanwhile in Australia, there’s no question of blocking, but the Federal Treasurer wants to make Netflix pay its taxes. Now, about the pirate sites?
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	In India, the TRAI came out in the name of net neutrality and banned zero-rating services, like Facebook’s “Free Basics.” Net activists were jubilant, saying India was leading and the US and EU would inevitably follow. (We’ll see if that happens – in the USA the FCC is agonizing over what to do about several zero-rating services, including most prominently a T-Mobile service called “Binge On.”) Anyway, the TRAI decision got a lot of international media attention, featuring lots of comment about how it was a big setback for Facebook. And indeed Facebook had spent big to try to mobilize Indian opinion to support them. The Sydney Morning Herald called the company’s miscalculations “Silicon Valley ignorance.” When Facebook then announced their India country chief was stepping down and relocating back to Silicon Valley, it occasioned a lot of invidious comment, and the company had to issue a release saying no no no, the two things were not related, and she wasn’t involved in the Free Basics campaign. (Huh? Are they so busy diddling their devices they didn’t think about what kind of comment the timing of that personnel announcement would generate???) Meanwhile, it seems like India will resemble the US in one way at least: litigation is going to follow.
Yegee Chun Regulatory Assistant	Musicians and the music industry have been making increasing noise about how the internet “culture of free” is destroying artists and creators. See for example, this column from Forbes magazine. But for a viewpoint that has real impact, see this video, drawn from a forthcoming documentary on what happens to artists (and authors, journalists, academics and video producers) in the Internet Age, where only aggregators make money. “They came for the musicians first, and then the filmmakers, and the writers, and the journalists…” Watch it; it’s good!
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	It was the BAFTA film awards on Sunday. As predicted by many Leo won for The Revenant which may set the stage for the OSCARS. The BAFTA’s wasn’t without its own controversy with the inclusion of Kisscam (Leonardo Di Caprio and Dame Maggie Smith, wait…what?) and one or two remarks that perhaps predicably set the easily offended social media ablaze including Stephen Fry comparing the winner of best costume design to a bag lady and Rebel Wilson discussing the diversity of BAFTA membership and saying she liked chocolate on Valentine’s Day (I shan’t elaborate, but you can watch it here).
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	To continue on with my theme this week of listening to what old guys have to say, Michael Eisner Predicts the Future. You can hear what he has to say about “gut calls”, “Bojack Horseman” and ‘what’s going to happen to the thousand channels that I can currently cycle through on my TV?” Then there is this 3-minute CNN clip of Barry Diller, Chairman of IAC, talking straight. “Cable companies are now much more interested in data and broadband.” Apparently, “‘Data systems’ is the new word for ‘cable’”.

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Member News

5 February 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Feb 5th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

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John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Censors and pirates/pirates and censors – my two favorite nemeses. So here’s this week’s example of wise censorship decision making: The Korean drama “My love from the Star” has finally been cleared for broadcast by China’s censors (after two years of delay). But a key change was required: the hero is no longer a “real” alien – he’s a fictional character in a novel. Good thing, that… we wouldn’t want those billion mainland Chinese people thinking there was a romance with a REAL alien! Oh, but wait… the uncensored version has already had 4 billion views on the Internet! Everybody’s seen the real alien already…
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Two of my favorite things, media and investing, both coming together in a smackdown piece by Michael Wolff. Digital Media’s Favorite Analyst: Often Quoted … and Often Wrong. "BTIG’s Richard Greenfield loves — loves! — being quoted on his favorite subject, the death of TV and the rise of disrupters. Just one problem: He’s been incorrect on everything from Facebook stock to CBS vs Time Warner Cable to social game company Zynga.”
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Speaking of investing, a new venture capital record has been set by Magic Leap, the augmented reality company that is regularly described as “mysterious”. The company has closed its latest round of financing by raising some US$793 million. Alibaba led the round, alongside other investors like Google, Qualcomm, Time Warner, and JP Morgan, to drop a few names, giving Magic Leap a valuation of US$4.5 billion. With all the buzz around AR and VR, it’s easy to get them confused; but the two technologies are quite different, possibly on “different planets”, even. That whole cosmic perspective makes more sense (or less, perhaps) after you read CEO Rony Abovitz’s latest blog post — heavy on stardust, light on details.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Indian regulator TRAI was supposed to have come out with its recommendations on differential pricing, Net neutrality and OTT services by now, but the industry waits with bated breath. Star TV’s CEO Uday Shankar weighed in with resolute support for neutrality (and opposition to Facebook’s Free Basics). Meanwhile, the debate continues to get political. While Telecoms Ministry hasn’t indicated any direction, country’s main Opposition party, Congress, has jumped into the fray now. It’s vice-president Rahul Gandhi took pot-shots at PM Modi saying `Digital India’ cannot become a euphemism for an Internet controlled by large corporations. The soap opera continues.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Is anybody really surprised? Americans were warned that watching football on pirate websites leads to malware infections and loss of privacy. But I don’t think that will dissuade too many, unfortunately. Fools rush in… After all, pirated content is free.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	And in the world of online research, the Latin American pay-TV association Alianza published the result of an extensive study of online piracy in several LatAm countries. Who would like to chip in, so we can commission a similar study of Asia?
Yegee Chun Regulatory Assistant	Facebook recently launched its new Audience Optimization tool, which improves ad targeting by providing publishers with a ranked list of over 282,000 user interests. Shockingly, “Facebook” is the top interest on the list, with an audience size of 1,466,365,990. Some of the categorizations and rankings seem downright bizarre, such as “Narcissistic parent” (audience size 41,660) and “Stop consonant” (audience size 50,616,390). Users can also view and edit a customized list of what Facebook thinks they are interested in.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	The Paley Centre for Media has just released a couple more videos of their fantastic interviews. For those interested in programming, Fox TV CEOs Gary Newman and Dana Walden discuss their unique approach to the creative process, nurturing series projects from both a network and a studio perspective and competing in the global marketplace. For those interested in the cable operator perspective Cablevision COO Kristin Dolan gets interviewed by AMC CEO Josh Sapan.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	For a fan of the market’s ability to serve best, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s proposal, to allow any manufacturer to create cable boxes that can access pay-TV service, is going to be interesting to watch. Some of the history and ins and outs of it are looked at by The Verge in, Inside the FCC’s audacious plan to blow up the cable box.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Under pressure from various quarters and media companies’ dipping revenues in a flattening economy, TRAI now has floated a new consultation paper aimed at devising a holistic tariff structure for distribution platforms and whether there’s a need to regulate carriage fee. Some in the industry wonder where’s the need for such micro-management when many issues can be taken care of by market forces.

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Member News

29 January 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Jan 29th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Brought to you by:

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Well, it didn’t take long for the doors to start slamming in SE Asia…….Indonesia’s market-leading telecom provider, the state-owned PT Telkom, announced it would block its consumers from receiving Netflix content, based on the newcomer’s lack of compliance with government mandates on content censorship and tax payments. (Might it also have something to do with lack of a commercial agreement between the telco and Netflix?) Anyway, never mind censorship…..The Hollywood Reporter opines that the real challenge for Netflix is finding local-style content to appeal to fragmented audiences overseas. TelecomAsia agrees, saying local TV services can be expected to rely on local content to try and beat Netflix at its own game. The Star says that in Malaysia, Netflix’s big problem will be poor broadband connectivity: “a good streaming experience is critical, and this is lacking in many parts of Malaysia.” And the South China Morning Post collected some facts to demonstrate the problem for Netflix caused by patchwork licensing: the Hong Kong Netflix catalog has fewer titles than the Antarctica catalog, says the Post. What do penguins watch, anyway?
Christopher Slaughter CEO	The Lunar New Year holiday is fast approaching, and with it comes… The Super Bowl. Okay, that’s a totally spurious connection that has nothing to do with the fact that Denver is my home town. But to be fair, I was also born in North Carolina (truth), so really, I win either way. Not that I’m betting anywhere near as much on this game as the advertisers, some of whom are reportedly spending north of US$5 million a pop for a 30-second spot. That’s enough money to make sure those spots are pretty special, and in some cases, even worth issuing previews to heighten the buzz. Of course, the question that gets asked every year is whether it’s worth it; the fact that companies are blatantly breaking outdoor advertising laws in San Francisco with Super Bowl-related ads seems to partly answer that.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	On a somewhat related note, animal rights activist group PETA has made itself famous for shock tactics, so it should come as no surprise that the organization’s latest ad –which was set to debut during the Super Bowl– has been banned from TV. Another example of getting your message across as the ad has gone viral – perhaps that was the plan all along as it’s plain for all to see that this would never have made it thru the plethora of TV regulations. The USA does have content regulations, for free-to-air TV but not for cable…..never mind for OTT services! A warning of graphic content but you can view this NSFW ad here.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	For any of you who have the responsibility of directing how your media company moves forward, I strongly suggest that you read Age of Abundance: How the Content Explosion Will Invert the Media Industry. "Over the past century, technological advancements have massively reduced the cost and time needed to create and circulate content. Though this has liberated artists, consumers are now drowning in a virtually infinite supply of things to watch, listen to and read. The answer to a world where attention is the key constraint, not capital or distribution, isn’t Big Media – it’s the Influencer Curator.”
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	There’s a policy lesson for other countries in the coverage of 20th Century Fox’s new deal with iQiyi, for online distribution of studio content in China: You can expect to see lots of deals, for domestic as well as international content, when the government becomes less tolerant of rampant piracy, as has China in the last couple of years. (Now if only China would become less tolerant of the black box makers and pirate app streamers who are ruining markets in the rest of the world……)
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	"Making money from advertising is really hard.” Truer words have never been spoken about online video. That’s why Vimeo (which doesn’t sell advertising) will apparently be launching a subscription service in the next few months. "The service will work a lot like Netflix—except stocked with the high-minded independent videos and documentaries for which Vimeo is known”, said Chief Executive Officer Kerry Trainor. Check out the Vimeo blog on how to earn more without ads, including their handy calculator. But with Netflix, Amazon, HBO Now, Hulu, iFlix, Hooq, Youtube Red, Vessel, etc. etc. all wanting a few bucks a month, possibly Trainor will soon be saying, “making money from subscription is really hard.”
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Content-led marketing can significantly improve consumers’ positivity towards advertising brands, according to a study by the BBC. Around two thirds of respondents (64%) said they were happy to read content-led marketing as long as it was clear which brand was presenting it; the same proportion were happy to read it as long as it was clearly labelled.

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Member News

22 January 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Jan 22nd. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Brought to you by:

Christopher Slaughter CEO	Another week, another couple dozen stories about Netflix: between slamming NBC’s efforts to develop Netflix ratings during the Television Critics Association winter tour, and its well-received but lower-than-last-year Q4 earnings report, the company — as usual — has been getting a lot of ink. There’ve been more musings about its delayed entry into China, a "thought-piece" about how it is “the most feared force in Hollywood”, and a closer look at its content strategy and acquisition negotiations. Oh, and it’s also been called out for an inconsistent stand on net neutrality, and been scoffed at for thinking it can stop VPN users from accessing the US-based service.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Singapore announced this week a merger of its previously-separate regulatory bodies, MDA and IDA. The new regulator, to be called IMDA, will come into existence later this year, under the leadership of MDA’s current CEO, Gabriel Lim. Everybody seems to be favorable to the change; officials were quick to promise that a review and streamlining of the laws governing broadcasting and telecom will follow soon. I hope that’s true; in Hong Kong the bureaucratic merger took place four years ago, and we’re still waiting for promised legislative reforms.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	Cross border content in Europe continues to be a big fight; in the latest development the European parliament voted another resolution pressing the European Commission to force content owners to offer their content across borders. MEPs say the geo-blocking of online access to goods and services on the basis of their IP address, postal address or the country of issue of credit cards is unjustified in the EU’s “single market” and it should stop. The parliament is angry that its previous resolutions along this line have not been fully implemented; as the European Commission has so far taken a more middle-of-the road approach, which we described in News Views a couple of weeks ago. So we can see if this week’s resolution has any more effect.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Meanwhile, another European body, the Competition Directorate, opened another front in the war against single-country content licensing, summoning content providers and Sky to hearings in Brussels to defend themselves against claims that EU antitrust law requires they license content for distribution across the entire Union. The major movie studios and Sky are resisting; commentators said that the entire basis of the content industry in Europe is at play, and they may well be right. “The fundamental problem with (the EU’s) initiative is that if you push it forward, it breaks down the whole licensing model, and therefore the whole value chain on which this industry has been built…”
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Hong Kong’s proposed new copyright law — which CASBAA has been working on for ten years now — is proceeding at a snail’s pace through the Legislative Council, as a result of all manner of ridiculous procedural jiggery-pokery. However, the legislators stalling the bill stuffed up their timing this week, allowing the pro-government bloc to pass the bill’s second reading (it needs to pass three votes to be ratified). But don’t expect to see it zoom ahead now; more tomfoolery is promised, which is producing a growing impatience to get it over with.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Seemingly (and that’s a very important word) the gloves are off. Indian telecoms and broadcast carriage regulator has castigated Facebook publicly for not only twisting facts, but also trying to take undue advantage of a consultation paper floated by the regulator on the issue of differential pricing and net neutrality. However, an interesting observation came from a critic who observed public now sees the Internet not just in market terms, but as a social phenomenon that requires public interest regulation. Now, in India regulation of any sort, in public interest or not, always has 50 shades of grey.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	The National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) is happening in Miami this week. A few interesting stories have come out about it. The show kicked off with a Lively Debate About Pros and Cons of Peak TV. Speaking about TV executives, one panelist said, "We seem to be the only part of the culture that bemoans an abundance of quality programming.” In the Rights, Deals and Negotiation segment: “With non-traditional television development, there’s a huge opportunity to use digital platforms as an incubator…” On the OTT panel: "You always hear people say, "digital wants to be TV and TV wants to be digital, but it is actually coming together."
Yegee Chun Regulatory Assistant	The rollout of “smart homes” in full swing, in a niche market of early adopters led by Google-owned Nest, Samsung’s SmartThings, and Apple’s HomeKit. For pay-TV operators, this could mean an opportunity to develop their own software to run connected objects and integrate a TV/broadband service, which this author believes would reduce churn. AT&T and Comcast have hopped on this bandwagon, though the latter experienced problems earlier this month when researchers found a simple way to hack its home security system.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Jack Myers, chairman of marketing intelligence firm MyersBizNet, thinks that this year we will see “the beginning of a long-term trend of marketers returning to legacy media,” including TV and radio. Meanwhile in China, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, categorised as Fast-track Asia, recorded the highest growth rate among all the regions, at 9%, in the global market between 2015 to 2016.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	What’s happening with pay-TV powerhouse ESPN these days? The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) had an in depth article with President, John Skipper. Fierce Cable did a good summary of it with Skipper saying, "We are still engaged in the most successful business model in the history of media, and see no reason to abandon it.” To hear Skipper’s views on Apple, Sling TV and sports rights, the Q&A page is open to view, which also includes a nice little get-to-know-you video of Skipper.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	The Australian government has announced it intends to introduce changes to media ownership rules in the next six months. The communications minister, Mitch Fifield, says media laws should reflect today’s world as current legislation is gradually being rendered redundant by new technology and the choices being offered to consumers. Australia’s media ownership laws have remained unchanged for over a decade. The laws prevented cross media ownership of newspapers, television and radio broadcasting licences that served the same region and limitation on foreign investment across those sectors. While the extent of the proposed change to the legislation is still under wraps, the government has said that broadcastsers must remain viable but there are two elements that need changing: the reach rule, which stops the big free-to-air networks from buying regional affiliates if it means they will then reach more than 75% of the population; and the two-thirds rule, which prevents proprietors from owning print, television and radio networks in one market.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	China’s censors are at it again – ordering popular programs off of internet broadcasting platforms. It seems the problem with one of the most viewed shows, “Go Princess Go,” is that it depicts time travel. Or maybe it’s a problem that the “princess” starts out the series as a “playboy,” and has a sex change operation. Either way, clearly a threat to the nation.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	In Korea, the proposed merger between SK Telecom and CJ Hellovision continues to roil the waters. Rival telcos KT and LG have been furiously lobbying against the deal, which is under review by regulators. Everybody seems to agree that the outcome is crucial for the future of South Korea’s communications operators.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	An interesting report from the research company Parks Associates claims one third of U.K. broadband households had subscribed to an OTT video service as of Q3 2015. Parks Associates claimed that OTT video usage in the U.K. favors broadcasters with the most popular OTT video sources in the U.K. including BBC’s iPlayer, ITV Player, All4, and Demand5—all catch-up or on-demand offerings from broadcasters. New OTT video market entrants, especially those with paid services, will have to provide unique value in order to make substantial gains. That said, around 20% of UK broadband households have recently used a Netflix service, despite the free OTT catch-up options.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	Pakistani authorities have lifted a three-year ban on Google-owned YouTube following the launch of the site’s local version. As well as Pakistan, YouTube has also launched homepages for its users in Nepal and Sri Lanka, with each homepage featuring a localized languages and domains. Unlike Nepal and Sri Lanka though, the new Pakistan version includes a backroom agreement which will allow the government to strictly monitor the site and can remove and block any material they deem offensive.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

Member News

15 January 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Jan 15th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Brought to you by:

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

At the risk of changing this newsletter’s name from “News Views” to "Netflix Views”, we’ve got to acknowledge that since they flipped the switch on (almost) every market in the region last week, we’ve been talking about very little else, actually. Hot off the presses is the company’s announcement that it will stop allowing subscribers to access the service via VPNs, proxies or “unblockers” (Variety says it’s going to “..bring the hammer down…” which seems a bit hyperbolic), but it will remain to be seen how effective that will be. Meantime, John has put together a pretty comprehensive overview of how Netflix’s “Gotcha!” launch has been received in various territories here in Asia… take it away, Mr. Medeiros!

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

So, what does it mean to launch a service in 130 countries? They sit in Silicon Valley, open the gusher, and the sweet crude flows all through the global network, just like that? Maybe that happens (for a while) in a technical sense, but in a commercial sense you still need access to customers and to their payments and the governments that you’re flipping off might have something to say about that. Here’s a short summary of some reactions around our region:
Hong Kong: Even in this relatively uncensored international city, it was immediately noted that Netflix’s content offering was not absolutely compelling, as local consumers enjoy a mix that includes local content, (“much Netflix content is ‘niche’ given ordinary Hong Kong people’s tastes”) and besides that, the good bits were lacking from the library, as series like “Orange is the New Black” had already been exclusively licensed to other distributors.

India: Reaction was rather subdued, as most noted that compared to India’s low prices for content, Netflix’s rates seemed very high, and could “alienate the middle class which is the main category driving consumption.” And at least one local provider lowered its prices, accentuating the problem for Netflix.

Indonesia: The film censorship board had fun binge-watching the movies on Netflix and then said they should be blocked. The Minister of Communications didn’t address the censorship issue, but said Netflix had to open an office, get a license and pay taxes.

Malaysia of course is known for its strict content controls, and there, the responsible Minister said even if Netflix doesn’t require a license, they have to follow the content codes (and the government is mulling requiring them to get a license, too). Meanwhile one eager content censor offered a candid view: “We’ve got to start blocking Netflix now, he said, “before people start to like these shows.” Another worry also cropped up: if a lot of people start watching Netflix, bandwidth demand could overwhelm existing internet infrastructure.

In Singapore, it took only one day for the local media to zero in on the “Tilted Playing Field” problem posed by “outdated” media laws that “subject local…content distributors to far stricter regulations than overseas players that provide content online.” Singapore-based media journal “Content Asia” had a GREAT commentary on this, in their most recent e-newsletter. Janine Stein justly decried “a situation where companies on the ground are held to local standards and Netflix is given free reign with its 0000 default pin code.” Janine admits it’s not easy for governments to balance conflicting agendas as the world changes around us, but she hit out at some regulators for “effectively giving the finger to programmers (and platforms) in the region who have followed the rules, been respectful, paid their taxes, created jobs, trained people, and contributed on the ground in so many ways.” (Music to my ears!)

In Thailand, the Bangkok Post noted the local language problem, quoting an industry exec as saying not only in Thailand but all around ASEAN “a one-size-fits-all approach would not meet the needs of everyone in emerging markets”

And in Vietnam, the reaction was No No No No No! (Netflix didn’t bother to try, in China, so Vietnam gets the Dr. No award this time.)

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

I was in Las Vegas last week at CES, where amidst all the drones and kitted-out cars, Virtual Reality was the theme that kept coming forward (and causing grown men to cry, apparently). Queues for VR demos were everywhere, with people willing to stand for more than an hour to try a rig out, and willing to lose their lunches in the process. And despite the fact that VR is just barely past the "Trough of Disillusionment” on Gartner’s hype curve, many of the online players in particular are getting stuck into the technology, with Hulu planning to roll out products and services this spring, and Google reportedly getting ready to make some big bets too. And while there are still plenty of skeptics out there who think VR is just the latest fad (think: “3DTV”), there are others who are thinking very deeply about the new technology: “… the most fascinating idea—but it’s deeply philosophical and very disturbing—is whether we do live in a virtual reality all the time anyway, in some sort of virtual ambiguity.” Who else, but Werner Herzog…?

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

Another company that put on a great presentation at CES was YouTube. And the digital video story cannot be written without them. Robert Kyncl’s (Chief Business Officer) keynote can be seen (or quickly read) and goes over his predictions about digital video from 2012. He is spookily on track to nailing them all.

Kevin Jennings

Vice President, Programme

Controversy in Australia over the latest Australia Day Lamb ad, where Australian diaspora are “extracted” from situations around the world to ensure they can have lamb on the barbie on January 26th. No word from the Danish Royal family but inevitably, the ad has received complaints, including vegans who branded the ad discriminatory and the campaign has received the most complaints for any ad in Australian history. The Australian Advertising Standards Bureau is set to rule on the case next week and could force the ad to be withdrawn, but with Australia Day just around the corner the complaints have raised the profile of the campaign so either way the ad can be judged a success.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the US case where cable ISP Cox Communications was being sued for not seriously applying a policy to stem repeat infringement by its customers. (Cox is not a part of the “Copyright Alert System,” also known as the “six strikes” system, for notifying and reprimanding serial pirate downloaders.) Well, now the jury has returned a verdict: Cox was found guilty of contributing to infringement and was fined US$25 million. Hollywood Reporter said the decision “could make it more likely that in the future, copyright pirates are kicked off the Internet.” (Well, until they come back, at least…..) And TorrentFreak commented “it is now likely that … major ISPs will be scrambling to have very clear repeat infringer processes committed to paper and have their employees follow them to the letter.” Sounds like a good outcome to me. (But there will, inevitably be an appeal.)

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

After spending mega bucks on Free basics campaign in India, Facebook is still not certain which way the coin will turn. Not only FB and regulator TRAI are fighting over number of responses against and for Free Basics and differential pricing; the latter being opposed by many, including CASBAA member Star India. While Net neutrality, reportedly, got a thumbs up (what else?) from Indians, FB is being panned by internet advocacy organisations for being "disingenuous" in its plans to bring "digital equality for all Indians." But here’s an original critique of the issue, put forward by an independent think-tank, Observer Research Foundation, which among other things, wants some sort of must-provide obligation put on the Internet. Ugh!!

Jane Buckthought

Advertising Consultant

Two thirds of Southeast Asian children aged 6-14 would rather only use the internet than watch any television. This is according to a study by SuperAwesome involving 1,800 kids aged 6-14 in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Other findings: Asked whether they would rather only use the internet or only watch TV, 66 per cent of kids said the former. The smartphone is the most popular device on which kids access the internet. Using different screened devices at the same time – multi-screening – is common. And YouTube is by far the most popular website.

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

Al Jazeera America has announced it will be closing down its US-based operations, a move that could lead to layoffs for up to 700 journalists in a dozen bureaux across the country. The company cites “…the economic challenges in the US media marketplace…” as the main reason it has struggled to build an audience, although others are less forgiving: “…it set out to prove that a hard-news cable network with an Arabic name…could connect with American viewers. It failed miserably.” But Al Jazeera’s Dohar headquarters has a slightly different lead for the story, saying the company will “…expand its existing international digital services to broaden its multi-platform presence in the United States.”

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

The third phase of digitisation is complete (deadline over on Dec 31, 2015). No, wait, probably it’s not. The deadline is being extended by various courts despite federal government (read MIB) stating beginning of last quarter 2015 there would be no extension. If an average consumer of cable TV in India is confused, he’s not to be blamed. Equally confused is MIB, which is, according to media reports, burning midnight oil to find ways to counter court orders. Amidst this confusion head of Siti Cable, one of the three largest MSOs, is for broadcasters blacking out signals in non-digitised areas.

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

From an Asian perspective, with our TV/video markets developed at varying degrees of maturity, predictions for American media are always interesting. Either the prediction already came true or it may do a number of years down the road. Either way, the following are applicable and worth the read. Watch This Space: Big Change For Media In 2016: Prediction 1 – "More players will enter the OTT space”. Come on, that’s a gimme, can’t argue there. Five Streaming Video Predictions for 2016. Prediction 2 – "YouTube and Facebook will continue to square off, and it will probably result in a split decision.” Sorry, this is a heavy-weight title fight. 2016 will only see us through round 2.

Kevin Jennings

Vice President, Programme

The Vietnam government has announced it is gearing up to launch three satellites over the next five years. The new satellites will be used for remote sensing – collecting and transmitting data about the Earth’s surface, helping scientists forecast climate change and natural disasters. The Deputy Minister of Information and Communications said the satellite communication sector has strongly grown in Vietnam with two operational telecom satellites and a remote sensing satellite currently in operation.

Jane Buckthought

Advertising Consultant

Korean internet users claiming to watch TV content and movies on-line via TV has grown significantly in two years. Despite the growing trend, Ovum’s senior analyst for TV and OTT video, doesn’t envisage the end of traditional TV distribution. He says “Nothing happens overnight. Contrary to popular perceptions, consumer habits actually change remarkably slowly."

Yegee Chun

Regulatory Assistant

Tech giants unveiled several impressive displays at CES 2016. Among them were a transformable module TV and a transparent OLED screen by Samsung, and Panasonic’s invisible display. LG presented its 8K Super Ultra-High Definition TV, as well as a flexible, bendable HD screen that could revolutionize mobile or on-the-go viewing in the near future.

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

Sports all set to get more exciting ( and, probably, more moneyed) in India from later this month. Disney’s ESPN re-enters after a three-year cool-off period with a new partner, Sony beginning with non-live programming. It’d be interesting to watch how ESPN’s former partner Star reacts having poured in billions of dollars in sporting products.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

Member News

8 January 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Jan 8th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Brought to you by:

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

Security was turning people away from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ keynote at CES almost an hour before it even started, the room was that full. And of course, the enthusiasm was justified by Hastings’ announcement of their simultaneous global launch in 130 countries worldwide (map here). (Top tip: scroll down for the post-keynote press conference, which in some ways was actually better than the keynote.) So not only has the 800-pound gorilla finally shown up, it’s shown up in almost ALL of our markets at once. (China is the obvious missing piece in the puzzle.) Still, there are no foregone conclusions in these troubled times, and while it might be cold comfort, it’s also true that even near-ubiquity is not a guarantee of success.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

The western world went on holiday last week, but there was no break in India, and the media had a field day obsessing about net neutrality along with earning some advertising revenue too from FB. Facebook, whose “Free Basics” plan is being savaged by the technorati and the print media , tried to fight back, but some of its methods (deceptive click-inducing ads which sent emails to the TRAI) were looked at askance. They finally pulled out the big gun: Mark Zuckerberg himself waded into the debate, writing Op-Ed pieces and calling tech entrepreneurs to get them on board. But in one sense, Facebook’s big guns backfired, producing a nativist backlash against foreign companies and their “colonialist” approaches. “India’s digital independence is threatened!!” Nix differential pricing. Man those barricades, tekkies.

Kevin Jennings

Vice President, Programme

There was a time when the established business model of paying for entertainment and having free water seemed a pretty safe bet. Nowadays many consumers pay for bottled water and expect most of their entertainment to be free. In a bid to address this ever –shifting trend, Apple has announced it intends to charge more for iphones and ipads in Germany with the surplus going towards paying for royalties as part of a copyright levy deal between the tech industry and content producers. The attached article highlights that people buying Apple products in Germany will also be paying royalties to porn sites and actors but that’s really only part of the picture … and who are we to judge.

… And in another piracy- related story, the Bollywood actress Kriti Sanon found herself sitting next to a fellow traveler on a plane recently who was quite shamelessly watching a pirated version of the film Dilwale that Sanon herself was starring in. Despite remonstrations the passenger continued to watch the movie. At the time the film had only been released in cinemas for 10 days so there was no chance this could have been anything but a pirated version.

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

As usual digitisation too has run into a match of claims (by the government) and counterclaims (by the industry stakeholders, especially the LCOs and independent MSOs) for the third phase of digitisation the deadline for which ended on December 31, 2015. Meanwhile the courts too have got into play and, on petitions filed by LCO association, at least four high courts in different States have stayed final implementation for few more months. The drama continues; wait for the next episode.

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

Oculus just announced details of the Rift rollout in March with a price-tag of US$599. But one will also need a beefy computer to drive it. It’s not just gamers that are excited about VR. Fox is all over it with The Martian VR Experience and have been described as, "most aggressive in terms of figuring out what a VR experience can be.” This can be seen with their recent investment into virtual reality smart glasses designer and manufacturer Osterhout Design Group looking to "take its 3D, high-definition glasses — billed as a 65-inch screen that goes anywhere — to the entertainment market."

Kevin Jennings

Vice President, Programme

Yahoo Screen, which launched in 2011 and offered up original series, short clips and licensed content, has been shut down. All of Yahoo’s video content will instead be routed to the company’s various sites. The move effectively marks the end of Yahoo’s original streaming online video plans. Yahoo’s comedy originals, are now available in Yahoo’s TV section. As well as a major cost –saving exercise, the closure comes on the heels of previous criticism from consumers when Community (re)launched that the viewing experience just wasn’t very good.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

The European Commission’s assault on country-based copyright commercial licensing seems to have abated a bit. The “Digital Single Market” proposal, in its latest iteration, calls for consumers to have the right to access their own content wherever they travel in the EU, but doesn’t repeat calls to dismantle geoblocking entirely. In the words of one commentary, “Sports and media rights owners will be pleased that (the) proposal is relatively limited and should not interfere with the traditional structure of licensing content on a territorial basis.”

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

2015 was a tough year for most media stocks with $50 billion evaporating from the major players. Netflix ended up being the best performing stock on the S&P 500 with some expecting some serious profits in 2016. Though, Netflix could potentially feel the squeeze as numerous players are starting to play Netflix’s game. Closer to home, media companies in Korea were busy emulating the boom years of the 1980s showing outstanding returns. The Korean export model is now working in media, with China being a big market.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

One phase of the Kim Dotcom saga finally ended, as a NZ court ruled he could be extradited to the USA to face criminal copyright conspiracy charges. I’ve found myself reading the NZ Herald a lot in recent months, as their coverage of the court proceedings has been pretty thorough. Now the appeals begin, and the Herald has have an interview with Dotcom himself, in which the former Mega CEO says he plans to continue to “fight long and hard,” despite evidence including his emails in which he labeled himself a pirate, and testimony by one of his former co-conspirators, who has done a plea bargain. Meanwhile, in news that will mean majorly higher incomes for some Hong Kong legal practitioners, Dotcom also says he’s got a bunch of money now and he’s going to sue the US government “indirectly”, by suing the HK Department of Justice (as HK was where his companies were based).

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries launched late December its multi-billion dollar and ambitous 4G services, presently for its over two thousands employees, and promises to flood markets with Lyf-branded handsets soon. Along with Netflix’s arrival, the debate has started whether 4G could change India’s media landscape. — provided restrictive and intrusive policies are not put in place.

Kevin Jennings

Vice President, Programme

With the Christmas and New Year festivities now firmly behind us we turn our attention to the build up to Chinese New Year. Pepsi have launched a campaign in China to welcome the Year of the Monkey with what else than the story of the Monkey King family.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

Member News

18 December 2015

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Dec 18th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Brought to you by:

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The travail of the Hong Kong government’s attempt to bring its copyright regime into the digital era continues. After the legislative snafus and trash-can explosion reported in last week’s News Views, this week there was an attempted invasion of a pro-copyright press conference by young radicals. (For more on that, see Chris’s first person report below). Undeterred, our Copyright Alliance issued our press release anyway. Meanwhile, I’ve been doing lots of interviews for the English media, including one in which I followed the head of the local Bar Association (who sang music to my ears when she said “Hong Kong needs this bill quickly.” ) And we got an Op-Ed piece published in China Daily (HK). But nothing works to persuade the young activists, who continue to put forth conspiracy theories according to which their government is out to use the Copyright Ordinance to get them. On the actual legislation, the opposition continues to employ procedural tactics to delay consideration. As of this morning (Friday), there has still been no discussion of the actual issues related to the Bill. The holiday recess means the legislature will adjourn today and then come back to this after New Years.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	As John has mentioned above, I spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon last weekend with a couple dozen industry folks — including people from Time Warner, Turner, Fox, and TVB — sequestered in a small windowless room for about an hour. What was meant to be a press conference in support of the Copyright Bill was hijacked by this lot, who were as unsmiling as they appear in the photo. After scuffling with security guards and trying to knock down the door, police were called, and the event was cancelled. Outside, unable to even get into the room because of the protestors, were more industry supporters, including representatives from Turner, 21st Century Fox, and ITV, among others. Ah, the diversions of Hong Kong during the political season!
Christopher Slaughter CEO	It’s that time of year again; halls are being decked, bells are being jingled, merriment is being made. And an almost infinite variety of Best of 2015 lists are popping up: as plain old vanilla Top 10 lists, as sort of equivocal Top Too-Many-To-Count lists, and as serial Best Of list (you have to wait for Part Two). There are lists of the best shows presented as pairs, there’s a Best TV Couples list, there’s the soon-to-be-everywhere slideshow Best Of list, as well as the trend-bucking non-slideshow list. At the risk of sounding like FX boss Jon Landgraf, there are simply too many Best Of lists to keep track of. But then again, excess is sort of what this time of year is all about. Happy Holidays!
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	Google has updated its Play Movies & TV app for iOS to give users the ability to stream content to Apple TV via AirPlay on newer Apple TV models and software. The update also enables streaming over a cellular connection so there is no need for Wi-Fi connectivity to watch video on the go. Google’s Play Movies & TV has long supported Chromecast, allowing iPhone and iPad users to stream content to their HDTV using Google’s own dongle. Google’s addition of AirPlay support to the app may come as a surprise, given the competitive arena but the sheer volume of Apple users probably made it worthwhile for Google to tap into the market, even if it means some Chromecast users will be cannibalised. Meanwhile if you’re in the UK, the BBC’s i-player app is now available on Apple TV. There is also a plan to introduce the ability for i-player users to sync progress between different devices so viewers can pick up where they left off. What a time to be alive.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	It’s not the most massive tome ever printed, but at 230-some pages, the 2015 edition of the ITU’s Measuring the Information Society Report has a serious "thud factor” from all the information it contains. Among the key takeaways: mobile broadband penetration is greater than 95% globally, and a lot of the growth in the development of the Internet of Things will come from the world’s developing economies, despite the fact that IoT is reaching the top of the “hype curve”. Oh, and South Korea is the most-Internet-connected country, while Hong Kong ranks in ninth place worldwide.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Social media wags questioned Google’s Loon project saying the loonies are all over (the obvious ones are left out here as they are elected representatives), but chai pe charcha (discussion over tea) with PM Modi in Silicon Valley earlier, notwithstanding, this project was questioned on security grounds (what else?) despite the end mean of getting more Indian linked to the Net. But the company CEO India-born Sundar Pichai, on a visit to India, seems to have charmed the hard-boiled Indian politicians on Loon for the time being, pitching with his vision for Digital India and later telling college students that Google’s new Android app may carry an Indian name based on his mom’s advise. That’s what we call an Indian charm offensive as moms seldom are wrong.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Meanwhile, while Google got more serious about India promising the whole cyber world to India (almost), company’s India-born and cricket-loving CEO Sudar Pichai bowled a googly stating he supported Net Neutrality. Facebook’s Zuckerberg lobbying hard for Free Basic initiative, criticised for violating neutrality norms, may not like the TV soap-like twists from Google though Facebook has launched a campaign exhorting Indian FB users to send a message to TRAI in support of Free Basics. Such corporate boxing will always excite Indian policy-makers.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	A few weeks ago Disney launched DisneyLife in the UK. And now they have teamed up with Alibaba to launch a DisneyLife service in China. "The service connects customers, physical products and digital entertainment in a ‘holistic home-based kids and family digital destination.’” "Like other foreign groups, Disney is unable to operate its own TV channels in China." It will be very interesting to see if there are more such launches in Asia from other content companies and specifically how all these types of products fare in the market.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Media Research Development Association (Thailand) has awarded Kantar Media a contract to deliver new multi-platform TV ratings data in Thailand. The five-year contract will begin in 2017. The service will comprise a representative panel of 3,000 homes to measure multi-platform TV viewing and deliver a new TV ratings currency in Thailand. It is not clear yet whether these ratings will co-exist alongside the service from Nielsen, which has been the main ratings provider in Thailand for 30 years.
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	The Indonesian Government has said it intends to promote local OTT services as part of the country’s vision to become the largest ‘digital economy’ in South-East Asia. The Association of Telecommunication Operators (ATSI) is inviting local startups to register their OTT services, after which three services (especially those with social media and chatting services) will be identified and earmarked for support by the association, They will receive training by ATSI and members will also promote the OTT services via their own channels, including their SMS blasts. There are three requirements for OTT candidature: 1) They must be owned by Indonesians; 2) They must have at least 100 to 500 users; and 3) Their services must be available for the Android platform.
Yegee Chun Regulatory Assistant	Netflix has formed a partnership with Bell, one of Canada’s largest telecommunications and media companies. Bell’s Fibe TV subscribers will now be able to access an existing Netflix account through their set-top box, without buying new equipment or switching TV inputs. This is the third TV partnership Netflix has established in Canada, after Cogeco Cable and TELUS. These companies pay taxes, so does this mean that finally Netflix consumers are paying their fair share of taxes?
Christopher Slaughter CEO	It might not seem like your typical light holiday read, but even though the subject is clinical depression, it’s also a paean to the power of TV: "There’s something about a TV show that hits you right in the gut, something that no other medium can quite touch. You grow with these characters over years. You get to know them intimately. They come into your home, for goodness’ sake. And when you connect with a series, it’s like building a real relationship, with someone who will let you get to know them and also maybe help you better understand yourself."
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	In Bangkok, the NBTC is playing tough with True Visions Group (TVG). TVG and a few other pay-TV operators had filed suits in the Central Administrative Court against the NBTC’s mandatory channel numbering scheme. (The plan requires the first 36 channel numbers to be reserved for the national digital terrestrial licensees.) TVG maintains that its cable and satellite networks were entirely built and paid for by its shareholders, and the NBTC has no right to commandeer a numbering resource that has value, and order it devoted to others. While the main lawsuits are still pending, a temporary injunction to suspend the NBTC’s order while the case runs its course was rejected. The Bangkok Post is now warning that the numbers game could get costly if operators don’t comply.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	India’s MIB is leaving few digital stones unturned as third phase completion deadline ends December 31, 2015. Not only has MIB updated the list of cities to be covered in this phase, but has also advised broadcasters against giving analog signals to MSOs in the new year. A MIB official also publicly stated that STB seeding would pick up pace as deadline nears. Over to the industry stakeholders now.
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	Tis the season for crystal-ball gazing – a recent study has predicted that broadcasters will be using IP for live production in the next 10 years. According to the research, more than 40% per cent of respondents said they had already begun the transition to using IP in live production. This includes production of large set-piece events, such as the Olympic Games or World Cup, and weekly football matches. Only 7 per cent of respondents said they had no plans to transition to IP in live production. While IP and Ethernet production isn’t new, live events have been one of the last bastions of hardware –based systems and the move to IP will also help drive the inexorable push toward the adaptation of 4K signals and the march of OTT.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	It’s very subtle and under-the-radar as some may say, but the Indian media needs to be careful and alert. A self-regulatory body, set up by the industry itself, is red flagging issues. So, where does that leave the news media; especially when it’s targeted for being sensational?
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The Digital Citizens Alliance, in the USA, has focused a lot of attention on the ills associated with content piracy. This week, they released a new report, “Digital Bait“ which noted that injections of malware are so common on torrent piracy websites that 12 million users each month, in the US alone, get infected. They studied 800 popular torrent sites, and found that fully a third have malware ambushes pre-loaded – and that doesn’t count the stuff a user gets by actually clicking on ads or from the torrent files themselves.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	For those of you who like looking forward, and have a hankering for VR/AR, I have something special for you. You have just got to see this presentation by virtual reality legend Jesse Schell at the VRX conference in San Francisco. Watch with the accompanying slide show. VR and AR predictions galore going to 2025. A taste: By 2018 Comcast will have a VR channel. By 2020, there will be at least ten virtual reality reality shows. By 2025, AR experiences synced with TV will be a thing. Plus, Jesse is total kick. Hmmmm…how to place him at a CASBAA conference.

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Member News

11 December 2015

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Dec 11th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Brought to you by:

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

Anybody in Hong Kong has been witnessing an unaccustomed high profile for copyright issues this week: the Legislative Council is taking up copyright amendments which would extend copyright for the first time into the digital realm, and bring the laws into conformity with the WIPO Internet Treaties. Unfortunately, there have been some snafus along the way. And there was even an explosion (the real kind, not the verbal kind) on Wednesday. The anti-copyright forces are composed of lots of young citizens who don’t understand copyright law but want to retain their freedom to post whatever they want online, egged on by internet companies who love traffic, traffic and more traffic, no matter what the origin. The copyright industries are trying to make a reasoned case, helped out by a handful of legal professionals and academics. but it’s uphill going against hordes of “netizens” who repeat scare scenarios to each other. Not for nothing is the spokesman for one of the anti-copyright groups named Kafka (I kid you not.)

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

A new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers entitled Videoquake 3.0: The Evolution of TV’s Revolution (free download) says one in four US consumers, or 23%, trimmed their pay TV services in 2015, with 16% of people surveyed cutting the cord entirely. There’s a lot more to the PwC report than just those headlines, of course, but it certainly reaffirms recent trends in the US.

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

As does Network control company Sandvine’s latest Global Internet Phenomena report (registration required), noting that streaming video now accounts for 70% of fixed broadband usage. Drilling deeper into the report, it shows that Netflix alone accounts for more than half that video traffic, although the share of streaming media provided by other sources is also rising. The trends are slightly different when looking at mobile broadband; video and audio streaming are big, but social media is also driving a lot of traffic.

Meanwhile, subscriber management company Paywizard has released a white paper called OTT Isn’t Just For Christmas (registration required) that’s based on surveys in the US, UK, Germany, Singapore, Australia, and Brazil. It’s predicting a big surge in SVOD sign-ups in the period before Christmas, but also (and rather worryingly) that 50% of those subscribers will drop their subscriptions by July.

Kevin Jennings

Programme Director

Vodafone is rolling out its 4G network in India. The service is initially available in Kochi, Kerala. Vodafone LTE services are available on most 4G-enabled smartphones Customers will have access to HD video streaming, mobile gaming and two-way video calling. Vodafone said it will soon expand its 4G roll-out to cover Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata. Vodafone is already offering streaming video and new users can watch movies with a free unlimited movie subscription via Hungama Play for three months. Competitor Reliance Jio has also said it will announce the launch of its 4G services in India by the end of this month. It is anticipated that Jio’s data pricing will be 50% cheaper by compared to its main rivals Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India.

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

Lots of headlines coming out of the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, starting with the bank itself, which published a report endorsing the bundle as the best value at the best price. Among the industry luminaries assembled in New York was Time-Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, who says Apple’s Tim Cook is right, TV is broken. Meanwhile, CBS boss Les Moonves says traditional broadcasters are doing just fine, Fox CFO John Nallen says the streaming TV experience is not great for US consumers, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos joked (?) about starting a new sports league, Liberty CEO Greg Maffei reckons Wall Street overreacted to cord-cutting, and Discovery’s David Zaslav is looking globally rather than being US-centric.

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

There has been a lot of talk about ad blockers recently but a company called Shine is taking it to the next level. "Where Ad Block Plus is a Kalashnikov, Shine is a weapon of mass destruction.” "Shine’s business is to suppress mobile advertising —all of it, to every customer — by simply eliminating ads at the cell phone carrier level.” “We should not underestimate Shine”, warns a Google executive, “they have traction; they recently got the former CEO of Vodafone Europe on their board of directors and more cell carriers are considering working with them”. In Asia, as a good portion of video viewing is on mobile, this type of ad blocking could be of serious concern to our business.

Jane Buckthought

Advertising Consultant

A new report released by GroupM has predicted that ad spend globally will remain subdued over the coming 12 months. It also highlights that global ad investment had grown about four per cent in 2015 and will continue to grow to four and a half per cent in 2016. Meanwhile, another report released this week by ZenithOptimedia says traditional spend on TV has already peaked and it will be surpassed by digital spend by 2018. A similar report, this time by Magna Global, says that spends on TV actually fell for the first time year on year in 2015 (outside of a recession.)

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

In India, the Net Neutrality issue has not gone away, despite being quiet for a few months. The government for the time being prefers to pass the hot potato to the TRAI, and wait for them to recommend. The regulator is torn between desires to chant to the mantra of “free and open internet” and the fact that its regulated telco constituents need to find a way to find massive infrastructure investments, and their revenues are being savaged by telecom OTT services. But this week TRAI issued a new consultation paper, explicitly targeting “zero-rating” plans like Facebook’s Internet.org and Airtel Zero. TRAI is just asking for views, but the framing of the questions doesn’t seem to favor the zero-rating plans, using words like discriminatory, non-competitive and thwarting innovation.

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

Indian broadcast and telecoms regulator has put its foot down ruling out any extensions on the deadline for digital rollout’s Phase III amidst hectiv lobbying seeking some relaxations. Though unrelated to digitisation, but stakeholders continue to bicker over other issues that may just slow down digital rollout in its next and last phase and, may be, also PM Modi’s ambitious Digital India dream.

Yegee Chun

Regulatory Assistant

Netflix is often credited with sparking a binge-watching epidemic by allowing users to marathon episodes of their favourite TV series. With its one-hour holiday special, A Very Murray Christmas, it emulates a more traditional TV experience instead, though the special is obviously not aired live and will be available before, during, and every day after Christmas. Indeed, it seems that Netflix’s plans for 2016 have it starting to behave much like a TV station. Interestingly enough, the rise of Netflix is concurrent with a decrease in the proportion of piracy over total Internet traffic.

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

Self regulation doesn’t seem to be working that effectively, it seems. A TRAI report states 139 TV channels flouting 12 minute per hour advertising cap. Or, is it that self-regulatory norms are not applicable on TRAI diktat, an issue that’s being still contested in courts?

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

Japan’s self-regulatory system for media content came in for comment last week, amid worries the government might be getting too pushy.

Kevin Jennings

Programme Director

Amazon Prime customers in the US can now manage standalone OTT video services from other providers without the need for a separate cable subscription through a new initiative called the Streaming Partners Program which launched on December 8th. The hub allows outside SVOD providers to market their platforms to Prime subscribers, delivering their video through Amazon’s streaming infrastructure. Billing would also take place through the retail giant’s payment system. Customers will be able to use one watchlist to browse across all subscriptions, with special Prime member pricing available for some services. At least 16 other partners have signed up for the program at launch, among them A+E Networks’ Lifetime Movie Club, AMC’s Shudder, Showtime, Starz, SundanceNow Doc Club and RLJ Entertainment’s Acorn TV.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

Taiwan’s NCC is continuing to put forward its plan to split that island’s huge, archaic, analogue cable bundle into a fixed-price basic tier and various add-ons. The new system was originally mooted in 2013, but now the regulator said the new system could be in place as early as next year. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were further delays.

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

About 75-80 percent of us admit to using a second device while watching TV. Top activities are web browsing, browsing for content tied to what we’re watching, reading email, reading news, and social media. "Nearly 40% of people surveyed are already making the effort to manually tie together what they’re watching on the big screen to the small screen in front of them. Imagine how much higher that percentage could go if there was some mechanism for connecting the devices automatically ” I see it now, an app with IMDB and tv.com open in one corner. In the other is Twitter, WhatsApp and FB. And somewhere else is Amazon so I can purchase Don Draper’s latest tie. Brings Primetime to whole new level.

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