8 August, 2014

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Aug 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:

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

Six months ago, in our “Digital, Legal and Anywhere” report on Australia, CASBAA and law firm Olswang observed that one of the problems in the piracy landscape there (and elsewhere) is that consumers are often unaware of how to access legitimate digital content. The Australian content industries reocognized we made a good point, and they have now taken up this challenge. A coalition of Aussie groups have developed an attractive and easy-to-use website to help lead consumers to legal content supplies online (both music and video). The site directs visitors to information about different services, which can be clicked directly to explore and enjoy. The official launch press release can be found here.

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

I’m not a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers in US major league baseball, although they’ve been having a great year (while my Colorado Rockies are in the toilet). No, what I’ve been watching is the months-long dispute between Time Warner Cable and Direct TV over the Dodgers TV channel, SportsNet LA. While the altercation might not exactly be the turning point for the cable business some are calling it, it’s definitely a reminder of the importance of sports to the Pay TV industry.

We’ll be presenting a panel on sports at this year’s CASBAA Convention (and it will cover more than just BPL rights!), but before then Sports Matters will be covering all aspects of the world of sport in Singapore next month, 17-18 September.

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

Court-ordered site blocking in India continues to develop, with a court approving an application by Star TV to require blocking of 107 websites engaged in transmission of a cricket tournament licensed to Star.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

Thailand’s principal regulator has asked the military government to set up a special committee to consider convergence issues. Reading between the lines, one might be tempted to think this is a play for bureaucratic authority vis-à-vis other agencies/Ministries. But some of the issues proposed for consideration are very real-world ones, like for example the stark differences in content regulation between licensed TV and internet TV. One likes to hope that the committee might consider intellectual property issues as well…

Jane Buckthought

Advertising Consultant

Global Ad-spend is expected to increase by 5.8% this year and 5% next year in the 13 countries covered in the latest Consensus Ad Forecast from Warc. Positive results from India up 11.3% and in China up 11.1%. Internet is growing quickly up 16.4% and TV with 5.3%.

Michael Steel

Regulatory Assistant

The Aussie debate on which way to take copyright (more enforcement or more loopholes) continues to rage. This column is an interesting contribution, from a guy who’s in the music (not the video) industry. But his points are supremely relevant. He notes that services like Spotify and Pandora have brought instant availability of music content to consumers throughout Australia… but “for Australian artists, making music available this way has not stopped file sharing of songs — in fact, it seems to have encouraged the belief that music should be free all the time… how do you expect artists to get paid for their work, which is seemingly valued by those who want to listen to it?”

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

Some people might think this approach to ending piracy is a little extreme. I guess throttling a pirate’s internet connection is probably more socially acceptable, eh?

Godfrey Chan

Member Relations & Marketing Executive

The Director Isn’t Done Yet: An Interview With Steven Soderbergh, talking about his views of moving on from movie industry to television.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

25 July, 2014

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending July 25th. 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

It’s not really like the dust has had a lot of time to settle on the Murdoch-Time Warner story, but then again, next moves were always expected. Over the past week, all sorts of reactions have been making the rounds; unsurprisingly, many of them have been negative. But some of this week’s follow-ups have provided a broader industry perspective, given near-term historical context, taken a look at the cost of saying “No,” and even exposed the players in the background. Some of the reaction pieces have also been sort of funny, in a slightly mean way, but that’s comedy, I guess. And of course, the story’s still got plenty of legs — expect more next week.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

Here’s a great column. It’s mostly about music but the points about the internet “sharing” culture (a lovely euphemism, that one) are just as valid for video. “Piracy may feel like victimless “free culture” to the user, but they are in fact participating in a digital black market. It’s not about information wanting to be free, but rather it’s about exploitative black marketeers and willfully blind tech companies wanting to get rich.”

And a related point: one of the column’s points is that there are more and more legal options online for obtaining content. One of the prominent legal options for music is the Spotify service. But here’s an article from last week, noting that for this type of service in Asia, piracy is the biggest problem: So when will Asian governments figure out that piracy kills not only their existing content creation and distribution industries, but also the nascent new ones, too!?

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

If something’s better than nothing, then Indian regulator TRAI’s recommendations on issues related to new DTH licensing regime is a step forward. But industry’s reaction has been mixed. License fees have been reduced, license periods increased and a host of procedural wrinkles have attempted to be smoothed out. All such positives come with a caveat aimed at restricting vertical and horizontal monopoly. This may necessitate restructuring in some DTH companies if MIB accepts TRAI recommendations, unlike letting them gather dust at times as in the past.

Sara Madera

Director, Member Relations & Marketing

My brother tells me that he prefers cable shows because they allow the viewership to build, rather than cancelling shows right away because of low initial ratings—and it appears this is true. Multichannel and premium channels have been known to wait for 3 days or even a month to collect ratings data, which now includes DVR, streaming, and on demand as opposed to the traditional live and day-of numbers of FTA channels. These totals can often double the viewership, showing that the way people watch their favorite shows is changing and reporting too early does not give a full picture. We are way ahead of this trend!

Desmond Chung

Associate Director, PR & Communications

Is the North American TV juggernaut flagging? While the worldwide pay-TV market continues to grow in Q1 2014 with the total pay-TV subscriber base is expected to surpass 936.4 million at the end of 2014, the North American cable TV market lost around 4 per cent subscriber base in 2013. However, in the United States, it is estimated by 2017 there will be 204 million connected TV devices linked to the Internet and able to deliver apps to viewers. So the US may still be the land of opportunity – if you know where to look!

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

Streaming giant Netflix has issued its Q2 results, and the key number is 50 million… as in total subscribers worldwide. The emphasis, of course, is on the “worldwide” part, since the company says it is focusing on international markets for growth. But bear in mind that “international” translates as “Europe” in Netflix-ese, at least for now, although the company has reportedly begun acquiring programming rights in Australia, where VPNs have already given it a sizeable digital market share.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

The “I told you so” department: A few weeks ago, when the Thai coup d’etat was fresh in everyone’s mind, I noted that attempts to block supply of legitimate international news channels would just result in people going online for (even more of) their news. Here’s an article I missed until now, pointing out that one major news supplier reacted by moving their news feeds online, and the ruling junta declined to challenge them.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

18 July, 2014

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending July 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	It wasn’t entirely expected, but then again, news that 21st Century Fox made a bid for Time Warner (and was rejected) doesn’t entirely come as surprise, either. After all, Rupert Murdoch has a history of bold media deals, and the news is certainly in keeping with the tenor of the times. Cue: readings between the lines, predictions on future moves, somewhat premature coronations, rumination on alternate deal scenarios, and plenty of regulatory hand-wringing.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	I know that on the weekend, there’s nothing you all like more than to curl up with a good copyright blog. [Cue loud boos, offstage] No? Well, here’s one that’s worth a look. In it, eminent jurist (and former WIPO Copyright chief) Mihaly Ficsor looks at the “netizens” lobby’s demands in Hong Kong for a broad exception from copyright for user-generated content. He says a broad exception is not necessary, potentially damaging to “primary creation” of copyrighted material, and in probable violation of WIPO’s treaties.(But other than that, it’s a cool idea, right?)
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	I’ve been wondering what would happen to the TAM service in India, after the regulatory action that effectively rendered continuation of their existing operations impossible. Here’s a commentary that answers the question of what is going on – but not what will happen in the future.
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	It’s rumored that Netflix is coming to Australia in March, but that’s not stopping Aussies from accessing the site in the meantime. Netflix is already the 2nd most popular paid content option and their numbers have tripled since last year, with locals using a VPN to watch their favorite shows. If this growth trend continues, an official launch may be more fizzle than sizzle.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The turmoil in Thailand’s TV industry shows no signs of abating. Caused by the licensing of 24 digital channels that are required to be on all platforms (and will soak up available ad revenues), operators are rethinking their strategies. This article alleges that GMM Grammy may end all their free satellite channels, to just focus on their new DTT money-spinner.
Desmond Chung Associate Director, PR & Communications	Online is so on-trend! With online movie revenues set to increase and companies like Yahoo beefing up their online video technology, it only makes sense that the king of online videos, YouTube, is looking to boost premium content on its site. But will this spell the end of Grumpy Cat or Maru, the Cat in the Box? Yeah….like THAT’S gonna happen.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Facebook has updated its status by doing a deal with Nielsen, to measure mobile TV viewership. On the surface, the deal sounds similar to the Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings launched late last year, but it’s actually quite different, and will allow Nielsen to track what programmes users are streaming to mobile devices, via their Facebook accounts. Which sounds sort of invasive… but both companies insist that the data will be anonymous and privacy-protected. Like…?
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	This conference in Eastern Europe sounds like it could be in Asia, doesn’t it? “While pay TV operators and OTT providers have urged authorities for years to step up enforcement of copyright laws, the panelists said most regulators could not care less about the piracy problem.”

Some additional links you might be interested in:

11 July, 2014

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending July 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:

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

Not much of a soccer football fan, me, but then again, it is the World Cup, and one sort of has to get into the spirit of the thing. Germany’s staggering defeat of Brazil was certainly historic, and partly due to ESPN’s social media team, it became the single most-Tweeted sporting event ever. And if you didn’t see the very funny beer ad (from Germany, of course), you should. But also worth watching again is John Oliver’s rant about FIFA on his HBO show “Last Week Tonight”.

Oh, and speaking of ESPN, CEO John Skipper did an interview with Bloomberg about the event’s success in the US, which of course, has not traditionally been much of a soccer football nation.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

In India, everybody has been making suggestions for stuff that should be in the new government’s budget. There are two that I’ve particularly liked. This one looks at making the cable TV industry a real partner in rolling out broadband infrastructure. (After all there are 100 million cable homes in India, and only 56 million with a fixed-line telephone – largely because the latter was the responsibility of state-owned telecom monopolies, and the former relied wholly on private entrepreneurship.) And this second one suggests that satellite can play a big role, too – especially if private capital could be mobilized by opening the skies

Michael Steel

Regulatory Assistant

In case anybody missed it, there was a significant piracy bust in India late last month: And CASBAA congratulated the Indian police on their work.

Godfrey Chan

Marketing & Member Relations Executive

The internet TV scene in China has suddenly become the focus of official attention, with a series of rules issued by the SAPPRFT regulators. The rules included provisions designed to protect the OTT economy from pirated content, and they were followed by a lawsuit against the big equipment manufacturer Xiaomi, whose streaming media set-top boxes are often sold equipped for full-on piracy. The suit, by Shenzhen content producer LeTV, ended in a court order that Xiaomi had to take action to stop the streaming of LeTV’s films on its boxes.

Desmond Chung

Associate Director, PR & Communications

Half empty or half full? On the one hand, according to the latest Multiscreen Index, the growth of pay television continues as providers embrace multiscreen services to offer subscribers more viewing options. On the other hand, at least in the United States, data from a recent telecom survey shows consumers feel overcharged and overwhelmed by their TV providers. So, is this a case of the squeaky wheel getting the news coverage?

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

One final word on the Aereo decision in the USA. Everybody has been analyzing the legal fine points, but how much do legal fine points matter, in a region where laws are frequently flouted with impunity? An analyst at Olswang said it well: “Whichever way one looks at Aereo, it did at least go to great cost and expense to try to position itself as being within the boundaries of copyright laws. In some Asian countries, by contrast, there are more plainly illegitimate services that don’t even go to those lengths, relying instead on weaknesses in the intellectual property enforcement regime to survive… in those countries, we will continue to see illegitimate cloud TV services enjoying successes and, by doing so, discouraging legitimate services from launching.”

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

“Delays (in processes) stand deleted,” India’s new MIB Minister Prakash Javadekar refreshingly told media industry CEOs in New Delhi recently. A sceptical industry was surprised when MIB last week ironed out a pending wrinkle relating to cumbersome security clearances from Ministry of Home Affairs for non-Indian directors of TV channels. Signs of openness also reflected when Minister Javadekar told Parliament two days back terrestrial broadcasting may be thrown open to private sector players too.

Sara Madera

Director, Member Relations & Marketing

Read about new topics of interest to the industry from the perspective of our CASBAA 2020 members. This month’s featured post: Los Angeles Screenings 2014. Please leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

Just always interesting, in a behind-the-scenes sort of way: the VFX created by Makevision for Game of Thrones Season 4.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

27 June, 2014

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending June 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	So the other shoe has finally dropped: Aereo has lost its fight in the US Supreme Court. Naturally, the decision was welcomed by broadcasters, and just as naturally condemned by Aereo. And of course, the ruling has also prompted plenty of musing about its effect on the TV industry, the need for broadcasters to embrace innovation, possible repercussions for other cloud-based services, and, finally, what Aereo will do next.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The Aereo decision is interesting and possible relevant to our concerns in Asia, too. The U.S. Supreme Court came to the opposite decision from the Singapore courts (in the 2010 Record TV case), which held that free-to-air broadcasts could be freely redistributed over the internet without any copyright violation. By contrast, courts in Japan (Maneki TV case) and Australia (Optus TV Now case) have sided with content owners and said internet redistribution of free-to-air content requires an agreed redistribution contract. We’re also aware of shady services that have pretended to have antenna farms for DTH pay-TV broadcasts, so they could relay “an individual’s own signal” to them, via the internet. Somehow nobody could ever find the antenna farms…….maybe, like Aereo, these guys had developed a mini-satellite-dish-on-a-chip? It seems more likely that the “antenna farm” legal fiction was a cover to deceive consumers and deter lawsuits.
Michael Steel Regulatory Assistant	Hong Kong’s Customs police scored a serious goal last week by breaking up a piracy ring that was stealing pay-TV signals and uploading them to the “black box” server (in China) for the “Maige” pirate TV service. Multiple locations were raided and a series of arrests were made; we’re now waiting to see who gets charged with what by the Department of Justice. Meanwhile, CASBAA took the opportunity to try to warn consumers that if they buy a pirate TV box, they could find themselves with dead boxes, as those who paid Maige apparently now have.
Godfrey Chan Marketing & Member Relations Executive	Quote of the Week: Former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell on the Aereo decision: “Any business plan, whether it’s Aereo’s or someone else’s,” he said, “that’s premised on taking someone else’s intellectual property without their permission and reselling it is probably not one to bank on.”
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	TV everywhere is driving viewing as a new Viacom study has found but measurement is a whole other story.
Desmond Chung Associate Director, PR & Communications	Is this the chomp of infamy? Proving the viral potency of a dirty bite, not only has Luis Suarez’s love nibble on Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini made the World Cup top of mind to even non-footie fans around the world but has proved a boon to marketers as well. Now that’s something to sink your teeth into!
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	Recent deployments of LTE Broadcast technology have been getting a lot of attention lately, with news that Korean carrier LG U+ is launching an LTE-based VOD service, coming just a few weeks after Orange debuted a live demo at the French Open, and Verizon in the US rolled out a test of LTE Multicast at the Indianapolis 500. The mobile industry is bullish on the prospects for LTE Broadcast, although some point out that the mobile operators have their work cut out for them learning the media game.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	The truth sometimes hurts, especially when it comes to audience behaviour. From The Atlantic: Audiences are liars, and the media organizations who listen to them without measuring them are dupes.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The US Cable Industry and energy efficiency advocates have taken issue with an LA Times report last week that distorted facts about energy consumption of cable boxes. Here’s the joint Letter to the Editor by the groups, which together negotiated a voluntary agreement to make set-top boxes more efficient. The Consumer Electronics Association complained about “serious factual errors and misleading implications in the Los Angeles Times article,” and here’s an NCTA.com blog post giving some additional views.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	In India, there are big differences of view over the progress of digitization: is the glass half empty, or is it half full? Some observers have taken to bashing the bureaucracy because the glass is not full enough, but News Broadcasters Association President Narayan Rao says in this commentary that blaming the I&B Ministry (or the TRAI) is unfair: “We currently have some highly efficient officials at the I&B Ministry who have shown a lot of understanding of our issues and have tried to do all they can to solve them.”

Some additional links you might be interested in:

Feeling spaced out after the CASBAA Satellite Forum? Check out this cool photo essay on Nasa’s new Orion manned spacecraft
What rots your brain more? The Internet or television?
International Piracy Watch List unveiled
Report: 1 Billion Digital TV Homes by End of 2014
India gets tough on World Cup streaming

13 June, 2014

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending June 13th. 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	There’s been a flood of new research reports out recently, starting with the release of the not-quite-telephone-directory-sized Global Media and Entertainment Outlook from PwC, which (among other things) declares that 2018 will be the year that Internet advertising will be poised to overtake TV as the largest advertising segment in media (look for the Chairman’s smiling visage on that last link). Then Cisco issued the Q1 update to its Visual Networking Index Services Adoption Forecast, a report whose title length is indicative of the massive amount of data it contains. A couple of my favourite takeaways (Cisco have kindly added online tools to spew out your own charts from their data): by 2018, Asia will have 2.6 billion mobile users, and 935 million online video users. And as if those two tomes weren’t enough, the latest iteration of the Adobe Digital Index hit the streets in the US this week. The report states that in America, online TV consumption (using TV Everywhere style services) was up 250% over the past year. But the icing on this triple-layer data cake is the Ericsson Mobility Report, which reminds us that Asia has almost as many mobile subscriptions as the rest of the world combined… and which predicts that the global volume of mobile video traffic will increase THIRTEEN TIMES by 2019.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	What’s all the fuss about advertising on pirate websites? Here’s an article that explains what CASBAA is doing, and what we hope to achieve, to prevent good money from supporting bad sites.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Anyone reading this under the age of 35 or those with kids will know the abundance of content is going to have an impact on the viewing data captured by peoplemeters. Between 2010 and 2013 there was an overall drop of 7% in the number of 25 to 34 year olds viewing traditional TV in the UK. But measurement methods need to catch up fast to ensure viewing via phones, tablets and computers can be monetized
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	If you can’t beat them, join ’em! Dish is targeting those pesky cord cutter, cord nevers and cord haters with a new live TV internet based service. They haven’t spilled many details yet, but one major content provider is already interested. Join the club!
Desmond Chung Associate Director, PR & Communications	Brave new world? The TV landscape has been completely disrupted by new ways of delivering and viewing programs with online video viewing as a TV replacement poised to surpass over-the-air reception for TV for the first time ever, as an example. The trick now is how to take advantage of these new opportunities and, most importantly, figure out a way to make money in a wild new world.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	It’s a sad truth that the explosion in digital piracy is killing Asian content producers, who have to depend only on piracy-riddled markets for their livelihoods. In this article, a Vietnamese writer notes that piracy is “eating up” Vietnam’s own content market. The article quotes a professor at Ho Chi Minh University of Law – who was speaking about book publishing but might just as well have been talking about video – as stating that “tens of thousands of illegal websites have opened and operated….without interference from the authorities.”
	As technologies and consumer habits continue to evolve, how will the satellite industry remain relevant during this time of transition? Join CASBAA and a high-profile roster of industry thought leaders as they explore what’s next for satellites in the Asia Pacific market.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

30 May, 2014

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending May 30th. 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	Analyst-turned-VC and all-round Internet guru Mary Meeker has released her annual Internet Trends report, and among the takeaways in the 164-slide deck: TV is still on top. But the report also reinforces what is fast becoming a digital truth… mobile is eating everything. Meanwhile, former Sony CEO and Chairman Sir Howard Stringer seems to have received an advance copy of Meeker’s report. He issued his own report this week, calling on the BBC (whose Executive Board he joined late last year) to re-prioritise, and emphasise mobile platforms over broadcast services.
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	Production giant Shine Group’s global sales and distribution arm, Shine International, has launched a video on-demand channel on the Roku streaming platform. This is the first time Shine has gone OTT directly to consumers, and could be the start of an interesting trend: production companies exploiting their own back catalogues via digital delivery.
Desmond Chung Associate Director, PR & Communications	Ah, the duality of the human psyche! According to a new study from Verance Corp., an estimated 94% of all American consumers viewing pirated movies are also buying legitimate copies of content. On the positive side: “This finding confirms that piracy loss can be converted to revenue opportunities…” The negative? That’s still an estimated 1 billion views of pirated movies each year! Half empty, half full… you decide.
Godfrey Chan Marketing & Member Relations Executive	Yahoo! is said to be developing a video product to compete with You Tube, complete with a more favorable ad revenue split. While they are being a bit cagey on the actual numbers, it could mean good news for content providers if digital delivery growth continues. It’s projected mobile video will soon account for over half of all data traffic come 2018.
Michael Steel Regulatory Assistant	Despite Cable TV’s overwhelming popularity in India, Satellite services continue to fight for their share of a growing market. Dish TV is expanding its DTH services, mainly in India’s Eastern regions. Adding 810,000 subscribers in the 2014 fiscal year, Dish TV saw an increase of over 15% in standalone revenues. However, several factors still weigh against Indian Satellite providers like Dish TV. India’s position regarding use of the C-band as well as the strain on the country’s current supply of transponders may well hamper further growth for Satellite TV providers. Can Dish TV keep it up? Or is this a case of taking the sweet before the bitter?
	As technologies and consumer habits continue to evolve, how will the satellite industry remain relevant during this time of transition? Join CASBAA and a high-profile roster of industry thought leaders as they explore what’s next for satellites in the Asia Pacific market. Regular rates end on 9 June.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

23 May, 2014

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending May 23rd. 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	Last weekend, a pretty amazing internal document was leaked from the New York Times, an analysis of the news organisation’s struggles to remain relevant in this disruptive digital environment. It’s a hefty bit of investigative journalism, weighing in at 97 pages, and contains all manner of insights, including the clearest explanation of “disruption” as a concept I’ve ever seen. And while some commentators love the report, others find it depressing, and still others think it will never be implemented; but pretty much all agree that it represents the sort of deep soul-searching every media organisation needs to conduct as it develops its digital strategy.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The Tilted Playing Field is Alive and Well in Thailand. Maybe we should be happy? One of the first actions of the military’s Peace and Order Maintenance Command (POMC) after declaring martial law in Thailand this week was to order a shut-down of a double handful of satellite TV stations. It’s not clear specifically what the stations did to provoke such attention, but a number of them had political affiliations. (Apparently, the broadcasting regulator was not consulted.) In any case, various political actors have already figured out how to get around the ban: they’re streaming their (sometimes inflammatory) campaign messages and speeches over YouTube.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Meanwhile, closing down TV is not only de rigueur in Thailand, unfortunately – in Pakistan, the country’s regulators ordered a shut-down of the country’s largest private broadcaster – for airing a segment which sequenced images of shoes with a song referencing Mohammed’s daughter. The rest of us in broadcasting can be happy we don’t have to deal with such sensitivities….good luck, Geo!
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	Large screen mobile phones, measuring at 5 inches or more, are taking over with 34% of shipments. Not to mention all smartphone sales are up 29% from last year. The largest market? China, with the US following a distant second. Why do we need such big screens? Maybe to ensure we don’t miss out on our favorite shows.
Godfrey Chan Marketing & Member Relations Executive	While Youtube is trying to redefine its own live and social TV aspect by acquiring Twitch, there are two issues worrying live streamers, and gamers: a) Youtube has an automated Content ID system with copyright and content rules, which could block use of copyrighted material (e.g. background music) by Twitch users, and b) Youtube remains banned in China (while Twitch is accessible). Will this change? Interestingly, for every U.S. citizen player there are 1.6 Chinese gamers.
	As technologies and consumer habits continue to evolve, how will the satellite industry remain relevant during this time of transition? Join CASBAA and a high-profile roster of industry thought leaders as they explore what’s next for satellites in the Asia Pacific market. Regular rates end on 9 June.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

16 May, 2014

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending May 16th. 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	“The Biggest Idol Brother”…? “American Loser”…? Don’t expect to see these titles on your EPG any time soon, but 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Media have unveiled plans to merge Shine, Endemol, and CORE Media Group, bringing “American Idol” and “The Biggest Loser” together under one roof. The key goal of the proposed merger is scale and global reach — but Fox warns, “There can be no assurance that the proposed transaction will be completed.”
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The dark corners of the internet are getting a bit of attention. The Wall Street Journal published a report on how online advertising supports pirate websites, detailing the malpractices of “nefarious” website owners who abuse the system to generate big profits from advertisers who are unaware of what they are supporting. But it also reports content industry comments that “ad networks and technology firms don’t do enough to stop advertisers from appearing alongside” illegal sales of pirated content, illicit drugs, porn, etc. . According to MPAA, some companies knowingly sell ads on piracy sites because it is lucrative to do so. I’m shocked, shocked…
Desmond Chung Associate Director, PR & Communications	Notch one up for the land lubbers Down Under! The Managing Director of the Australian Screen Association has declared the body’s support for the legislative approach to combating content piracy in Australia. While not quite the same as having offenders thrown in the brig, the government is looking into injunctive relief legislation in the battle against rogue websites. As the saying goes… “Avast ye pirates!”
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Neilsen has released the latest edition of its tentpole report Advertising & Audiences: State of the Media. There are plenty of takeaways in the report, among them the proliferation of channels in the US, and the trend toward shorter TVCs, but Neilsen identifies two main trends driving the US industry: media fragmentation and population shifts.
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	Have you ever clicked the “favorite” button on Twitter? Well, now science can tell us why. Whether as a response/reaction, purpose/ function or really for no reason at all, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence has broken it down. No surprise that the most popular reasons are because the tweet was informational or authored by someone special (read: famous).
Godfrey Chan Marketing & Member Relations Executive	A new report indicates that connected TVs are winning back eyeballs, at least in the USA. The report from Parks Associates says Americans are increasingly turning away from their computers to watch video as technologies proliferate to bring online video into the living room.
	As technologies and consumer habits continue to evolve, how will the satellite industry remain relevant during this time of transition? Join CASBAA and a high-profile roster of industry thought leaders as they explore what’s next for satellites in the Asia Pacific market.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

9 May, 2014

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending May 9th. 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	CASBAA’s Asia Breakfast at the NCTA Cable Show in Los Angeles recently drew a great deal of interest, with almost 100 people turning up for a breakfast discussion of competition in Asian cable markets. This year’s breakfast was the best-attended event of its kind ever, evincing the very active interest of Asian players to learn about developments in the USA, and US companies to evaluate market opportunities in Asia.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Among CASBAA’s recent efforts in fighting online piracy has been an initiative to identify how pirate sites make their money — they give away the content they steal from our industry for free, but generate tremendous amounts of money through online advertising. A recent article in the New York Times explores the world of online video advertising, and while it doesn’t mention pirate websites, it does highlight other pitfalls in the chase for online CPMs, including ads winding up placed on porn sites, botnets faking tens of millions of views daily, and appallingly unaccountable ad networks.
Desmond Chung Associate Director, PR & Communications	So, is bigger really better and can you actually have too much of a good thing? Well, according to new research from Nielsen, that would be a respective “no” and “yes”. In 2013, the average US TV home received 189 channels but viewers tuned in to an average of just 17 channels. So what does that mean for broadcaster? Content, not Elvis, is king!
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	Seen a commercial lately that pulled at your heartstrings? You aren’t the only one. There has been a shift in advertising towards connecting on an emotional “tear jerk” level, rather than humor, which was the preferred reaction in the past. Brands are outdoing themselves to ensure that customers know how their coffee or peanut butter impacts their lives in deep, meaningful ways. If you need a good cry, forget the movies—just check out some of these ads.
Godfrey Chan Marketing & Member Relations Executive	Despite the Australian authorities’ determination to tackle unauthorized pay media access, rapid innovation in Australian TV technology makes this a challenge. Check out what our CASBAA 2020 Committee members think about this topic.
	As technologies and consumer habits continue to evolve, how will the satellite industry remain relevant during this time of transition? Join CASBAA and a high-profile roster of industry thought leaders as they explore what’s next for satellites in the Asia Pacific market.

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