24 April, 2015

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Apr 24th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Christopher Slaughter CEO	Comcast is reportedly dropping its bid to merge with Time Warner Cable, after a series of meetings with US government officials made it clear just how serious the political opposition to the deal was. The FCC was reportedly going to call for an administrative hearing to review the deal, six US senators wrote another open letter to go on the record again as opposing to the merger, last week Bloomberg reported that the Justice Department was also taking a negative view, and a former FCC commissioner weighed in, saying the merger plan had “monopoly written all over it.”
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Netflix arrived legally in Australia, and promptly zoomed up as a bandwidth gobbler – one telco reported Netflix was 25% of consumption and rising fast. At a conference in Sydney, the CTO of the National Broadband Network expressed optimism that, with some additional investment , Australia’s HFC cable network was up to the task of delivering Netflix to consumers. But in some ways the more interesting numbers were in the Telstra COO’s remarks; she said that video was already half of Aussie internet consumption, and said “Rapid growth in the quantity and quality of video needs investment to meet that increasing demand.” She warned that consumers could expect to pay more for the added capacity required. Speakers also noted that consumers had increasingly high expectations of their online viewing experience; soon they will want 4K online. The chief media strategist of Akkamai said “Consumers expect a broadcast-like experience online. It’s no longer enough to separate the two as different things.”
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	When the head of a company talks, I always wonder how much is truth and how much are they just talking their book. Reed Hastings has recently hit it out of the park with Netflix’s Q1 Earnings so he’s got my ear. And what he says resonates, “We’ve had 80 years of linear TV, and it’s been amazing, and in its day the fax machine was amazing,” … “The next 20 years will be this transformation from linear TV to Internet TV.” He also says, “I predict HBO will do the best creative work of their lives in the next 10 years because they are on war footing.” How many of our organizations are on war footing?
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	And in India, the Net Neutrality debate continued. Fortunately, there were some voices of reason. I liked these two commentaries: this one, by economists at a noted economic think-tank, points out that “the standard narrative in favor of net neutrality takes…as a given that the infrastructure exists to enable participation and access,” and in India that’s not the case. Clearly, “the crux is really how to best manage India’s limited internet access resources and to embed incentives for expanding it.” This one, on the other hand, takes a slightly more….um….polemical approach. But I did chuckle at this line: “the form of net neutrality the Indian Twitterati are espousing is an impractical answer to a largely imagined problem.” CASBAA’s own submission to the TRAI took a similar economic perspective: we said broadcasters need capable communications networks to get their programming to consumers, and massive investments are needed to develop those networks in India.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	A new piece of research from Mobile & Online TV & Video: OTT, IPTV & Connected Markets 2015-2019, observes that OTT services are seeing a rapid uptake by consumers who want to view content, when and where it suits them. The report argues that traditional broadcasters are facing increased competition as more services go over-the-top of pay TV incumbents, allowing distributors such as Sling TV to provide customers with a cheaper, tailored alternative to cable TV, driving the trend for ‘cord-cutting’. The report suggests that continued growth in the established markets of West Europe and North America, along with the emergence of key OTT players in the Far East and Asia Pacific, will bring a surge in the uptake of OTT subscriptions over the next four years.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Verizon’s announcement of a “light” pay-TV package system in the US brought a lot of commentary, and a public protest by ESPN that their contract didn’t permit use of their channels in that way. Oh, this process of “de-bundling” will be interesting to watch! On a related note, the definition of “schadenfreude” is enjoyment derived from the troubles of others. But I have to confess that’s what I felt when reading this commentary, complaining that unbundled cable programming is going to cost more than the bundle . It turns out that a significant number of people, including the writer, have been enjoying large cable bundles for years that were subsidized by the mass of people who paid for stuff they didn’t consume. They begged for an end to the big cable bundle, and now they’ve got it… which means the days of cross-subsidies are ending.
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	Interesting news from the granddaddy of online video YouTube which has announced that it will be closing down its custom apps on a number of aging devices this week. The move will affect the second-generation Apple TV and its predecessor, as well as iOS devices running iOS 6 and below. Time to upgrade those old devices… again

Some additional links you might be interested in:

Member News:

17 April, 2015

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Apr 17th. 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

I spent an overwhelming couple of days at MIPTV in Cannes earlier this week, where the deals were being announced left, right, and center. One of the more interesting was Freemantle’s deal to develop entertainment formats for Shanghai Media Group. Fremantle will also handle world sales outside of China for all original formats developed under the agreement. Meanwhile, BBC Worldwide also announced an expansion of their strategic partnership with SMG to include programme and format production, distribution and co-production.

There was definitely industry excitement about the potential for deployment of Ultra HDTV, but away from La Croisette, some tech guys are warning: Ultra HD might not be simple after all. And just to add a bit more noise to the signal, over at NAB in Las Vegas, RED Digital Cinema have announced a new 8K camera to be shipped by the end of the year.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

My daily press summary has been swamped by outraged screams about “Internet FREEDOM” emanating from India. It leaves me a bit bemused to see complicated and multifaceted issues of economic policy reduced to sloganeering. Voices of reason get drowned out, in all the online shouting. The important issue that keeps getting lost is the need to find mechanisms to finance massive investments in India’s internet infrastructure. This should see telcos on one side of the issue, internet companies on the other, and media companies straddling the fence, given their different economic interests… but in fact what happens is that the wave of populist online bullying leaves companies like Airtel as well as its Internet partners beating a hasty retreat, proclaiming theireverlasting commitment to net neutrality. (Airtel was the company which last December prompted this whole whirlwind by proposing to charge its customers more for outside messaging services, and it was forced to retreat then, too.)

The Telecom Minister has already undercut the TRAI consultation process. So the decision-making is clearly going to be political, and prospects for a reasoned debate are not great. That’s too bad for India; the risk, as one wag put it to me, is that “The Indian public may just get what they ask for in all this, which may include fully non–discriminatory, low cost (low performance, low value) broadband services for all. Or of course the government may step in to announce a publicly funded broadband network — which action may just ensure all of the above!”

But lest you think things are better elsewhere, have a look at this slick advocacy video from the USA. It was clearly produced by the ANTI-neutrality forces, but notice how the (rather shadowy) sponsor is branded “Protect Internet Freedom.” It justifies OPPOSITION to net neutrality regulations by concern for a “Free and Open Internet.” Apparently, modern American values require devotion – on all sides – to motherhood, apple pie, and FOI. Let’s all cheer for FREEDOMMMMMM!

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

Could OTT ad revenue surpass TV’s $69B ad revenue in just 5 years?This was the topic discussed at NAB. One interesting comment came from the CEO of Net2TV, who said, “By the time that occurs, the definition of OTT will disappear. Because Netflix and Hulu will be on cable and cable networks will be on OTT.” According to the Diffusion Group, TV advertising revenues, including both legacy TV and OTT, will grow over the next 3 years. It’s up to the savvy players in the programming business to make sure their programming get’s it share of the pie.

Kevin Jennings

Programme Director

The early bird rates for the CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum will expire on Friday 17th April. As an added benefit to CASBAA members reading News Views we will extend the early bird rates to Monday 20th April, for those who haven’t already registered. The Satellite Industry Forum has a very strong speaker line up including Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General, ITU, Michel de Rosen, CEO, Eutelsat, Steve Spengler, CEO, Intelsat and Ferdinand Kayser, CCO, SES. Click on these links to download theregistration form and latest draft programme.

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

Amazon has announced that it will add the service X-Ray to its Fire TV in the US which offers the opportunity for viewers to learn more about a TV programme or movie you’re watching on TV. While not the first to incorporate use of metadata this way within online services, the X-Ray service can be voice activated via the remote without having to stop or pause content.

Jane Buckthought

Advertising Consultant

With all the hype around OTT, second screens and out of home viewing, a global survey from Nielsen has provided some insight into viewing habits in the “always on” world which shows that the TV screen is still the number one device for watching video. While there are notable exceptions with mobile championing short form content, and generational trends aside, it is still interesting to see data out there supporting the much maligned TV remains primary device of choice for watching videos in the home.

Sara Madera

Director, Member Relations & Marketing

Late last week, CASBAA member TV5 Monde became the latest victim of a major cyber-attack, understood to have been carried out by hackers with links to the Islamic State. Transmission of the network’s 11 channels was temporarily disrupted globally, along with its website and social media accounts. Although normal broadcast operations resumed within the day, Managing Director TV5 MondeAsia Pacific Alexandre Muller says, “Our email addresses have not yet been reactivated and we still do not know when things will be back to normal.”

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

In the US anyways, it looks like it’s getting tougher for fringe channels as, it’s survival of the fittest as channels drop from the bundle. With more OTT-delivered, slimmed down basic packages this may only get worse. But while The Weather Channel is being frozen out and could be heading into a very long winter, HBO shows the way forward. “Interesting, isn’t it,” he (Richard Plepler, the chief executive of HBO) said, “that at a time that’s been called the most competitive moment in our industry’s history, we have, in my opinion, the best array of content in our history.”

Kevin Jennings

Programme Director

After last month’s launch of Netflix in Australia, CEO Reed Hastings hascriticized the data caps used by Australian internet service providers,despite Netflix having signed a number of deals with Australian ISPs to allow Netflix usage to be unmetered, meaning the data used would not count towards a customer’s limit. In a comment that seems somewhat counter intuitive Hasting has said at a shareholder’s meeting that Netflix now regrets the unmetered usage deals, and will avoid them in the future, saying ”Data caps inhibit internet innovation and are bad for consumers” .

Some additional links you might be interested in:	Australia: Cartoon Network app upgraded for Oz Broadcasters Must Embrace Smart Advertising to Compete with Digital Revolution European rights groups back net neutrality Harmonic launches video network channel Netflix isn’t afraid of HBO, Apple, or Popcorn Time Television’s Future Comes down to a Question of Indie Profitability Verimatrix claims security milestone with Verspective
Member News:	BBC Worldwide Expands Shanghai Media Group Partnership with MOU Eutelsat: Televisa renews and expands capacity on Eutelsat satellites FIC Expands Michael Dick’s Aquisitions Role to Cover APAC & ME TV5MONDE Style HD to be launched in Asia Pacific on AsiaSat 5 Sat>ip Alliance Launched To Extend Role Of Satellite Broadcasting In Multiscreen Ecosystemse SES to host NASA Payload on SES-14

10 April, 2015

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Apr 10th. 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	Representatives of the owners of the Oscar-winning 2013 film “Dallas Buyers Club” have launched a global campaign to enforce their copyrights against people downloading pirate copies. The first step was asking ISPs to hand over subscriber info about the IP addresses being used for the piracy. In Australia, the ever-unhelpful iiNet resisted (no surprise), and a judge this week ruled against the ISP and in favor of the copyright owners. In Singapore, a court ordered release of the data earlier this year – a decision that wasn’t publicized. But now the matter has hit the press; M1 and StarHub say they are complying and Singtel says they haven’t received an order from the court. This is an interesting and unusual case study; the major Hollywood studios have refrained from pursuing end-users in recent years, on the theory that suing your customers is not a wise choice. And the motives of those pursuing these actions have been heavily criticized, with the expression “copyright troll” frequently employed. So who benefits from actions like this? Trolls under bridges or legitimate actors, creators, and technicians trying to make a living… maybe both!
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	One of CASBAA’s 2020 members recently sent me this article Advertisers are supposedly paying insanely high rates to get their ads on Snapchat. Yes, Snapchat now has a video section, Snapchat Discover, that publishes videos and written stories for brands. The standout line in the article is “industry sources say advertisers are paying $100 CPMs — twice as much as most video ad products can command online”. These numbers are huge comparing them to Youtube rates, estimated to be between $1-$15 CPM. Maybe I’m not in the Snapchat demo, as I couldn’t seem to get any ads to play for me in MTV, CNN, NatGeo, Cosmo or Vice. Or maybe I’m too slow and the ads disappeared before I could get to them.
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	We are delighted to announce that CASBAA, along with The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) and UNICEF are once again inviting broadcasters and producers to submit entries to the Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award for Television 2015. Programmes both for and about children are eligible, and can cover any child rights issue. Entries must have been broadcast between June 2014 and May 2015 and must be received by 15 June 2015.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Even as TRAI wants to tame OTTs with licences and regulations, making India a focus of the Net Neutrality debate raging globally, various telcos are out to take advantage. While TRAI’s consultation paper on OTTs is still pending, a new package announced by one of India’s biggest telco, Bharti Airtel, has raised the hackles of people and analysts. A writer in a leading newspaper aptly asked: Will you have to pay for WhatsApp, YouTube? A Member of Parliament goes further to state any move by TRAI to regulate OTT services will hit PM Modi’s dream project, Digital India. Even as the battle heats up, Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in a FB post on April 7, 2015 clarified: “‪#‎Internet… belongs to entire humanity and not to a few… A committee has been set up in Dept. of Telecom to look into ‪#‎NetNeutrality.”
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	We know watching in real-time allows you to avoid spoilers, as live TV has become a real-time social event that goes way beyond the confines of our living rooms. Research shows more than half of global respondents (53%) say they like to keep up with shows so they can join the conversation on social media, and nearly half (49%) say they watch live video programming more if it has a social media tie in. Forty-seven percent of global respondents say they engage with social media while watching video programming.
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	According to media reports the French media conglomerate Vivendi is looking at a possible acquisition of pay-TV group Sky, as one of several options to expand the reach of its own TV group Canal Plus. Any deal between Vivendi and Sky would bring together two powerful business personalities in Rupert Murdoch, whose Twenty-First Century Fox owns 39% of Sky, and Vivendi’s chairman and biggest shareholder, Vincent Bolloré. Sources said Vivendi is not thought to have yet made any approach to the boards and management of Sky or FOX.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Almost two years ago, CASBAA joined the Thai satellite TV industry in urging regulators at the NBTC to follow the example of the FCC in the USA, and allow all digital TV boxes to benefit from DTT conversion voucher subsidies. Instead, the NBTC chose to bestow this favor solely on DTT-only boxes – “hybrid” boxes which could receive both DTT and satellite (or cable) broadcasts were excluded. Now they’ve changed their mind, and consumers will be allowed to use their vouchers to buy hybrid satellite/DTT boxes, too. The NBTC admitted that take-up of the digital-only boxes has lagged – only half of the 8.3 million vouchers distributed thus far have actually been used. (No surprise — if I lived in upcountry Thailand, and was sitting pretty with nice clear satellite reception, you wouldn’t see me rushing to buy a different technology with questionable national coverage.)
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Dish Chairman, Charlie Ergen, gave some interesting comments on their new OTT service in Sling TV: Fine Young Cannibal? Takeaways of note: “It will cannibalize our business, there’s no question about that. It’s an innovator’s dilemma. Do you not take…the best of new technology to protect your old technology?” and “there’s going to be a ton of competitors coming, and there’s going to be different segments”. Still on Dish, “DISH’s over-the-top (OTT) service will offer both live linear and VOD content from HBO—differentiating it from Apple TV”. Of course how these content deals are stuctured is private, but Ad Age suggests that TV networks put subscriber caps on skinny bundles and streaming video services.
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	The number of pay-TV subscribers in the US fell for the first time in 2013, according to the latest FCC report on the TV market. The total fell to 100.9 million households at the end of 2013 from 101.0 million a year earlier. According to the FCC report, the drop was due entirely to cable operators, which saw their base decrease by 2 million in the year to 54.4 million while customers accessing TV over telecom networks rose to 11.3 million from 9.9 million at the end of 2012.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Nothing in advertising has generated more buzz in recent months than programmatic buying. Buying ad inventory more efficiently by applying rules to technology-enabled, automated purchases has marketers salivating. And they’re putting their money where their mouths are, with some of the world’s largest advertisers reportedly planning to shift as much as 75% of their digital spend to programmatic buying over the next year. Lets hope it can cope with the issues raised by another report: “When the Energy Level in the Commercial Conflicts with the Media Context“, did it just get a lot more complicated ?
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	A bit confused about OTT? These stories should clear things up. Pay-TV Providers Need To Embrace OTT Technology. Great, I want to embrace it now. Hang on, what’s this… Moody’s urges investors to stick with cable despite OTT rush. OK, if Moody’s says no rush, what’s the big deal, I’ll stick with the core linear business. But, wait a minute…Pay-TV to inch upwards while OTT rockets over next five years. ARRG!!!! I’m glad that I could help set things straight for you.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

Member News:

02 April, 2015

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Apr 2nd. 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	Adobe has released its U.S. Digital Video 2014 Inaugural Report, a data-rich look how users have interacted with its market-dominating authentication platform PrimeTime. Some key insights: unique TV Everywhere viewers grew by 117%, and authenticated video starts grew by 266% year on year. Definitely feels like TV Everywhere is a thing…
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The rallying cry for Net Neutrality (whatever that means) is resounding across India’s internet, following the TRAI’s issuance of its much-awaited consultation paper on the “Regulatory Framework for OTT Services.” Framed by netizens (Indians or foreign) and the always-vigilant print media, it’s a “fight”, and it’s not about money, it’s about free speech, an issue worth “fighting” for. And of course the blogosphere is urging its millions of sheeple to send in comments, no matter how uninformed, to the TRAI.(The FCC got four million comments on the issue; I hope TRAI’s mailbox is a large one.) All of this is stoked, of course, by the advocates for the net companies who will benefit from free access to consumers.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	I was having lunch with a senior person from a large programmer the other day and the topic of Youtube “not making any money” came up. This may now be the case, but if Youtube is gaining audience, building a new generation of viewers and creators and attracting advertisers it’s definitely something for which our industry needs to take notice. This report on the recent Youtube Fanfest in Mumbai gives an idea on Youtube’s effect on India. And with kids now spending six hours or more a day on screens this next generation may view TV quite differently than the last.
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	Yahoo! shows it isn’t all plain sailing in the OTT online video space with people trying out the Yahoo Screen service for the first time to watch a new series of the comedy Community and the online viewing experience did not go down well. With a wicked sense of irony the article describes the programme as a “lovably dysfunctional environment where nothing ever works as promised…”
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Global adspend is expected to grow 4.4 percent to reach $544 billion in 2015, according to ZenithOptimedia’s new Advertising Expenditure Forecasts, which finds that the fastest growing advertising category is online video. Growth is forecast to accelerate to 5.3 percent in 2016, boosted by the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and the U.S. Presidential elections. Adspend will then slow down slightly in the absence of these events, growing 4.8 percent in 2017.
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	Mike Weatherley spoke at last year’s CASBAA Convention when he was still IP Advisor to UK Prime Minister Cameron. He’s just stepped down from his parliamentary post, but before leaving he issued one more report, with his views on how online service providers (OSPs) can and should contribute to the battle against piracy. It’s a thoughtful exploration of the issues confronting OSPs; Weatherley advocates a further updating of UK laws on ISPs to modernize practices and introduce latest technology to preventing piracy where possible. He also makes a highly relevant point, with respect to debates over net neutrality: “I would not wish any concept of net neutrality to operate as an excuse to stop companies taking whatever responsibility for pirate content being distributed over their networks is considered appropriate.”
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Returning to net neutrality for a minute, I have limited sympathy for Indian telcos, who have fleeced people making overseas phone calls for decades… but largely missing from the online debate is the fact that a developing country with manifestly inadequate net infrastructure has a crying need for large investments. The “neutrality” mullahs never mention that their “solution” would require all consumers to pay for these investments through much higher net access bills – so that a small number of power users (and the companies who feed them) can benefit. I chuckled this week over this CNBC debate from last month when the issue broke in the USA. Be sure to watch at 6:00 when the reporter tells the Internet CEO that “It ticks me off, when I have to pay for everybody else (using Netflix)”. Oh, btw, that CEO made a cool US$1.1 billion when his startup sold to Yahoo – of course he LOVES his company’s unpaid access to consumers!
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	As CASBAA gears up for the Satellite Industry Forum on June 1st in Singapore, Bangladeshi authorities have announced June 2nd as the date for an international tender for a geosynchronous satellite system for the provision of communications and broadcasting services. Not only is this of interest to the satellite community but further down the line there are ramifications for broadcasters and possibly a slew of new channels. The satellite is supposed to have 14 C-band transponders – which are presumably in the “standard” C-band, as the Bangladeshi authorities gave away the extended C-band to telcos a couple of years ago, leading to huge interference problems for the country’s cable industry.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	A recent report from Nielsen on the use of electronic devices and social media in the region has found that that most people still prefer larger screen sizes even though media habits are undergoing the ‘most fundamental change since the introduction of TV’ as more and more people embrace the idea of ‘always-on’ media.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	In Indonesia, plans for digitization of terrestrial broadcasting have been thrown into doubt; the State Administrative Court a month ago quashed the government’s arrangements for DTT licensing, which were said to unfairly favor the existing owners of broadcasting companies. For now, there’s massive uncertainty, as the government plans to appeal. Further delays seem likely and it’s going to be harder and harder for Indonesia to meet the ASEAN target of full digitization by 2020.
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	The arrival of Netflix in Australia is being blamed for a general onlineslowdown in internet speed for some customers. iiNet has signed an unmetered deal with Netflix, meaning time spent viewing the US streaming giant isn’t included in monthly data allowances which leads consumers to unusually high consumption (for Australia, where data caps are common). Netflix viewing accounted for 15 per cent of iiNets total consumer traffic since the service launched last week. This resulted in a very Aussie blame game, with consumers blaming iiNet, iiNet blaming Telstra, and Telstra pointing out that “iiNet is responsible for the end-to-end management of their network and iiNet customers need to contact them if they are experiencing problems.” Telstra has an unmetered deal with Foxtel’s Presto service, and that doesn’t seem to have led to complaints.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report highlights the growing pervasiveness of video across the whole online content world, including news, advertising and social media, and not just traditional broadcast TV. This means that more long form content is being consumed on smartphones and tablets and implies this trend is likely to continue through to 2020.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

Member News:

27 March, 2015

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Mar 27th. 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	Netflix has officially launched its Australian service, and it will either be a fantastic success, or is a bad idea that will ruin the TV business Down Under, depending on who you ask; but either way, it’s ready for a fight. Among other things, CEO Reed Hastings is touting his service as the solution to piracy, while sidestepping questions about VPNs. Meanwhile, #2 carrier Optus is jumping on the bandwagon, paying British comedian Ricky Gervais “…a shedload of money” to be a pitchman for its partnership with Netflix.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	It’s the thing, in Asia: there are moves afoot in several markets against OTT services – but not the video ones. It’s the messaging/voice apps like Whatsapp and Wechat that are being targeted, and the motivating force is the interest of local telcos, who are seeing revenues decimated as consumers move from paid telco messaging services to “free” online ones. Vietnam has been mulling regulations that would cut in local telcos for a share of the action. India’s TRAI is mulling a consultation paper on how to handle OTT services, after telco Airtel floated and then withdrew a scheme to charge app users more for data. (By the way, that paper is now overdue – we can imagine the behind-the-scenes tussle going on.) A senior TRAi official told the CASBAA India Forum this week that the scope of the Authority’s ideas would certainly include video OTT services, as well as messaging services. Indonesia’s communication Minister told CASBAA’s “Indonesia in View” conference in January he was quite concerned at the issue, and wanted to promote dialogue between local companies and foreign OTT operators. In China, the issue for the telcos isn’t foreign operators, it’s domestic ones like WeChat, andnow there’s news of a commercial response by China Mobile, which is putting 200 million versions of its own app on 4G handsets to be sold this year. (P.S. Ignore the typo in that article…even in Asia, telcos don’t provide Short Massage Service!)
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	With cable and satellite TV subscriber numbers dropping in Canada it seems like an odd time for a regulator to be dictating bundling (or more like it, unbundling) arrangements for pay-TV operators. But, this is exactly what the CRTC is doing. “The country’s TV regulator has ordered domestic carriers to allow consumers to pick and pay for the Canadian and American TV channels they want by December 2016.”
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	The New York Times has reported that Facebook has been in talks with “half a dozen” news publishers over its plans to host news content on its own site, and give publishers a share of the advertising revenues instead of driving traffic to the publishers’ own websites. If the trial works this would have significant knock-on effects for content owners asFacebook will make the experience as seamless as possible.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	TV is still growing with the worldwide pay-TV market grew at a steady rate of 4 percent last year, reaching 923.5 million subscribers, according to ABI Research. And the latest Australian Multi-Screen Report, covering Q4 2014, finds that viewing of video content on internet-connected devices is up year-on-year, but remains small relative to the amount of time that Australians spend watching broadcast TV on in-home sets.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Government proposes, Supreme Court disposes. That’s what has happened in India. A draconian law has been struck down by SC relating to online posts and arrests of citizens. But as fine prints of the verdict is being studied, it seems another clause relating to online piracy of content hasn’t been touched by the court. The dance of democracy continues.
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	An interesting item in from Myanmar: It seems that the government there, dismayed by the proliferation of satellite dishes receiving programming from all over, is planning to ban dishes aimed at receiving foreign broadcasts. That would be good news for Myanmar’s own pay-TV operators, for whom overspill broadcasts are a huge issue. The trend toward trying to stem consumption of foreign broadcasts has been spreading in SE Asia — Brunei did the same thing last year, adding to a list that already includes Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. Meanwhile, there’s the internet…
Christopher Slaughter CEO	With the launch of the fifth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones imminent, little surprise that GoT has been in the headlines a lot, especially after the showrunners confirmed that they are outpacing the novels on which the series is based. As part of the publicity build-up, a preview has been screened (with the requisite red carpet), behind-the-screen videos are up on YouTube, drones have been banned in Northern Ireland, Sansa pitches “The Real Housewives of Westeros”, oh, and Cersei loves her tattoos.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The problem of media ownership in Thailand is on the front burner, as a deeply divided NBTC regulatory commission decided not to enforce cross-ownership restrictions that were theoretically in place for the digital terrestrial licensees. Afterwards, Commissioners and others warned about the long-term effects of abandoning the rules. Meanwhile, commentaries indicate that satellite TV is still competitive in Thailand, as many consumers don’t see the need to change from their existing connections. Nielsen reported that 75% of the nation’s TV households are getting their TV from cable and satellite, with only a quarter using terrestrial antennas.
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	Ex Hulu chief Jason Kilar has launched his new streaming video service called Vessel which focuses on short-form videos, similar to YouTube, and promises early access to new clips for a subscription of USD 2.99 per month. After the exclusive period, usually around three days, the videos are free to view, with ads. Some of its early-access content includes A+E programmes, a new series starring Alec Baldwin as a New York taxi driver and the food programme Tastemade. Vessel also has deals with Universal Music and Warner Music for early access to music videos.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	A new report is out related to Snapchat’s Discover service which is reinventing scheduled broadcast TV for smartphones. Integrating TV-style brand advertising aimed at 200 million valuable, hard-to-reach Millennials (teens and adults under-34). Major broadcasters (MTV, CNN, ESPN) and brands (BMW, McDonald’s) have signed up as launch partners.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

Member News:

20 March, 2015

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Mar 20th. 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 last week’s news about HBO Now launching on Apple TV, this week a Wall Street Journal report (paywall) says Apple will launch its own streaming service this autumn (no paywall). Which, of course, means the game is likely to change yet again. Now, Apple-watching is not exactly a new sport, and the Journal article (which remains unconfirmed by anyone, by the way) has set off lots of “me-too” reporting, including stories about how Apple is offering to share data with content providers to entice them to the service, speculation about whether Apple TV as-in-an-actual-Apple-TV-set will be next, and what an Apple streaming service could do for the company’s moribund iAd business.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	“Black Box” streaming media players are the subject of an antipiracy suit in US Federal Court by Chinese TV companies TVB and CCTV (along with US DTH platform Dish TV). The TV companies sued a handful of China-based firms which manufacture and market the “TVPad” line of black boxes, which have been heavily promoted for several years in developed-country markets as a way for consumers of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese programming to get free Internet program streams.CASBAA issued a statement welcoming the suit, and decrying proliferation of “black box” streaming media players as “a huge problem for the Asian and international television industries.”
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	When I read about a new OTT service being announced, there always seem to be more unanswered questions than answered ones. Exactly what channels will be offered, will they be linear or will programming be on-demand and how much, will there be a catch-up window and for how long, on what devices will the service be made available, etc, etc? For Sony’s new Playstation Vue which just launched in New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia, The Verge answers a number of questions for us and provides a great run-through of the interface.
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	Some welcome news from the Indian government in terms of clarification of policy as they reiterate that it has no plans to put a cap on the number of satellite television broadcasting channels in the country. But in the same breath Indian parliamentarians were told that permission had been withdrawn to 27 news and current affairs channels in the past three years.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	India, let’s get ready to rumble ? The battle for the television viewership measurement has intensified, with Television Audience Measurement India, an equal joint venture of WPP’s Kantar and Nielsen, all ready to give the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) a fight.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Australian telco giant Telstra has announced plans to acquire Globecast Australia subject to approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Telstra has been positioning itself for greater regional and global activity recently with a number of strategic acquisitions, including digital video-solutions provider Ooyala last October, and telecom service provider PacNet in December, among others.
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	Cable TV pioneer and Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks has launched his new OTT service CuriousityStream in the US, with an international launch “…just weeks away.” The ad-free SVOD service features a mix of original and licenced content, and features both short-form and long-form factual programming. Hendricks stepped down as Discovery chairman last year, 32 years after he originally set up the company.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	If you haven’t heard any ticking coming from the US lately, that’s because the FCC has once again stopped its 180-day countdown clock on its review of both the Comcast/Time-Warner Cable deal as well as the AT&T/DirecTV deal. Both were supposed to have final decisions this month, but are being held up because of litigation from programmers, who don’t want to disclose their contract terms with the platforms. (I love the LA Times’ take on this… “Bad news for Dodgers fans.”)
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Australia is seeing a big debate over media policy, with Communications Minister Turnbull having released his proposals to relax media ownership rules. Like most governments, the Aussies have broadcasting policies designed in the Stone Age of Television (last millennium, for Pete’s sake), and updates are badly needed. But anybody involved in pay-TV (or sports management) in Oz also noted that the antediluvian “antisiphoning” rules are to remain unchanged. This attracted negative attention from one well-known Australian media tycoon and as a resultthe debate got really interesting. (Politics, as the old saw goes, is nothing more than a blood sport.) Winners so far: Free-to-air TV owners. Losers: Sports leagues… and pay-TV. But Turnbull doesn’t get the last word – Prime Minister Abbott has yet to decide.
Kevin Jennings Programme Director	Lionsgate has released more details about its financing deal with China’s Hunan TV. Hunan TV is the second-most-watched broadcaster in China, and its film subsidiary will be co-financing many of Lionsgate’s films for the next three years. In addition, the two companies are exploring distribution of Hunan TV’s original programming outside China.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Marketing exploits the data of customers because humans are predictable. But we are at a crossroads in the evolution in marketing. Simon James, VP global performance analytics at SapientNitro, sharing his SXSW15 talk, explores the ethics of whether we should be using data analysis to exploit customer habits just because we can.

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13 March, 2015

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Mar 13th. 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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