13 May, 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending May 6th. 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’s official: the US has a new #2 broadband provider and #3 video provider, now that the Charter/TimeWarner Cable merger has overcome its final regulatory hurdle. The California Public Utility Commission gave the greenlight this week, after the FCC approved the deal earlier. That’s only a year after the deal was first announced, and it still came with conditions that Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai described as “extortion.”
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Meanwhile, here in the region, the big merger proposed between SK Telecom and CJ Hellovision has not been making rapid progress. (It requires approval from three different South Korean government agencies.) The agencies, led by the KCC, are saying the matter has to be taken seriously, and approval – if it comes – will take time. SK Telecom not surprisingly is pushing the deal, saying it will result in healthy competition and give consumers more content choices. Both sides are citing parallel foreign decisions as supporting their point of view: SK likes the FCC’s approval of the Charter/Time Warner cable merger. The KCC cites the UK regulator’s seeking to block a merger between mobile firms O2 and 3UK. (Bloomberg reports that deal may be going belly up.) To sum up: lots of precedent-citing, but no clarity yet, in Korea.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	It’s nice to see the industry warming to a theme, especially when it’s calling bullshit on digital ad metrics. Some fairly spurious claims have been made at the Digital Content Newfronts, and it's good to see that the ratings jigger-pokery is eliciting a proper backlash. (Of course, the original disinformation will still continue to be soberly passed along as The Truth, but then again, the Internet.)
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Indeed, the REAL truth must come out. TV researchers have been campaigning to redress the oversell of digital, and although it is not quite the “epic battle" that Campaign would have it be, the head of Thinkbox, the UK’s marketing body for commercial TV, made the case very cogently last week. But back to that Gawker piece; among its best lines: “The conflation of digital and traditional viewership metrics has gotten under the skin of TV people, and for good reason. If advertisers can be hoodwinked into believing that a sizable number of people are actually watching things on Facebook Live, they will direct their money online, where the ad rates are much, much lower than they are on TV. The thing here is that the TV people are right—even serious online video hits deliver numbers that would barely register if measured the same way TV programming is."
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Redef’s Matthew Ball has penned another “Original” this week where he looks forward in time to “Disney as a Service”. Ball believes that "Disney's future (is) bright, it's closer than ever to fulfilling Walt's own vision for the storied 'House of Mouse’.” Jason Hirschhorn adds, "It’s not only one of the few media brands that audiences actually care for, they were able to forge direct-to-consumer relationships decades before “D2C” entertainment became an imperative.” Also, Disney’s earnings were released this week with $12.97 billion in revenue for its fiscal 2016 second quarter.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Veterans of the policy wars will recall that back in 2007, CASBAA was urging India’s TRAI to loosen the reins of cable regulation, to allow the industry to generate enough revenue and become a modern digital broadband powerhouse. Here we are almost a decade later and the current Chairman of TRAI is saying it’s really too bad that India has not ”been able to leverage the 100 million cable TV homes in India to deliver broadband, which would have given us very fast internet.” Nice to have our concepts acknowledged, even 9 years late. But unfortunately TRAI still hasn’t learned the “light-touch” lesson and it is proposing to substantially INCREASE the burden of its controls on contracts between media industry players, under its “Interconnect” rules (which are a legacy of telephone regulation it is seeking to transfer into the media industry.) I fear for the future.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	In these troubled times of ubiquitous social media chatter, it seems like it’s almost impossible to avoid spoilers. And while it turns out that quite a few people don’t think spoilers are necessarily a bad thing, the complicated co-existence of linear and on-demand programming means sometimes content owners have just got to take a stand. Meanwhile, spoiler-hating fans can always download a Google Chrome extension, or go to more ridiculous extremes to avoid harshing their buzz. Likewise, for those who love spoilers, there are plenty of options online, including this handy service provided by none other than Netflix.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	To mark the 90th birthday of the iconic broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, the BBC has announced it plans to launch an app called The Story of Life. The free mobile app will be available globally and offer the largest digital release of Attenborough’s work with around 1,000 clips encompassing over 60 years of natural history film making with the BBC. The “Attenborough App” is scheduled to be released in the Autumn and is aimed at re-engaging with an audience more familiar with using smart devices to watch video. Perhaps wisely, the powers that be did not let the public vote for a name for the app, after the UK's new polar research ship was named RRS Sir David Attenborough, despite the voting public choosing something …different.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	I’m starting to think that Shane Smith, Vice CEO, was extremely well behaved in Bali at APOS earlier this month. He didn’t seem to have had a “few ales” before his talk on stage and there were no claims of Vice being “the fastest-growing network in the f—ing history of TV.” He saved this for Vice’s Digital Content NewFront presentation in New York last week where he announced that Vice would launch 20 TV channels worldwide this year, some being in Asia. In Bali, maybe he was just saving himself for the HBO party where he was seen at the bar doing tequila shots with a number of CASBAA members. You know who you are.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The pernicious role of politics in the Indian cable industry was highlighted by a Times of India report that there are more than 50 unauthorized cable channels being aired in the city of Puducherry alone. Such channels, says the Times “are often run by politicians or their supporters” and they are used to unfairly tout the candidate’s achievements.

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Member News

6 May, 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending May 6th. 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

Google’s online video behemoth YouTube is apparently planning a streaming pay TV service that will launch as soon as 2017. Reportedly to be called “Unplugged” (ummm… wait a minute, hasn’t that already been… I mean, done before… and isn’t MTV going to do it again…?), the online service will reportedly be a "skinny bundle” that may or may not prove to be the “cable killer” that the always-reliable Business Insider seems to think it will be. (Variety co-editor Andrew Wallenstein’s nay-sayer piece features a picture of a pig with wings.)

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

Speaking of skinny, the morphing of the business of TV delivery continues, Fox and Disney want to sell their own web TV bundle, via Hulu, for $40 a month. Hulu has been the direct-to-consumer avenue for the owners of the TV channels so this seems to make sense. That is if they don’t mind upsetting their largest customers, the existing pay TV bundlers. This service would also be a direct competitor to Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Vue and Dish Network’s Sling TV who already stream skinny packages, but whose performance is little known. Apparently NBCUniversal is also now in talks to join which would round out the big three US networks.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

Some of you may have seen that CASBAA joined a recent Indian consultation opposing regulation of set-top box technologies. A parallel issue is being hotly debated in the USA, where the FCC is considering rules to “open up the STB market” and force cable companies to accept consumer use of (previously incompatible) STBs provided by the internet tech industry. Some advocacy groups have pointed out that regulatory intervention by the FCC “carries no realistic promise of lower prices (nor) increased innovation.” But it’s worse than that. A couple of Congressmen wrote the FCC, expressing concern that “open” STB regs will lead to unscrupulous entrepreneurs selling “black box” devices to access pirated programming. Whoa! We’ve seen plenty of Android-based app piracy in Asia…….this debate in the USA must have them rubbing their hands with glee, up in Shenzhen.

The US debate will be amply aired at this year’s NCTA INTX conference. (FCC Chairman Wheeler is expected to speak, and he will no doubt be wearing Teflon clothing to deflect rhetorical assaults.) Also at INTX, CASBAA and NCTA will sponsor an “Asia Lunch,” which will talk about OTT and innovation in the Asian pay-TV industry. Anyone who will be in Boston on May 16 can sign up for the lunch here.

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

It’s earnings season again with first quarter numbers as follows: Time Warner’s revenues rose 3% to $7.3 billion, up from $7.1 billion a year ago. Operating income climbed 12% to $2 billion. Fox’s revenues exceeded estimates, hitting $7.23 billion and third-quarter profit dropped to $841 million. Viacom’s revenue declined 3 percent to $3.078 billion with a profit of $303 million. Discovery revenue rose 1.1 percent to $1.56 billion with net earnings of $263 million, compared with $250 million in the year-ago period. These all compare to Netflix which reported, a couple weeks back, revenue of $1.96 billion and net income of $28 million. Disney reports next week and analysts are hopeful for a good quarter.

Kevin Jennings

Vice President, Programme

After weeks of speculation, it has finally been confirmed that Rovi plans to acquire TiVo for about US$1.1 billion. The new company will keep the TiVo branding but will be led by Rovi CEO Tom Carson. The consolidation move combines TiVo’s traditional TV and on-demand content with Rovi’s guides, advertising, analytics and cloud services. To capitalise on the greater scale, the new TiVo will offer an analytics platform dedicated to media and entertainment, and will enable better targeting of media spend and an improved commercial inventory and more efficient targeted advertising.

Jane Buckthought

Advertising Consultant

Since first announcing its Total Audience Measurement in October, Nielsen in the US has maintained that the new tool, which will include viewers across all linear and digital platforms in a single metric, would be ready in time for networks and buyers to use during this year's upfronts. However those plans are on hold saying clients are not quite ready for the data.

Meanwhile down under, The Australian Connected Consumer Report from Nielsen predicted that the proportion of online Australians using VOD services would rise from 59% to 67% over the course of this year. This makes sense when you see that Nearly six in 10 Australians has four or more devices including PCs, tablets and smartphones.

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

Data is king, and the largest and peoplemeter panel has been running in India for the past year. The head honcho’s at BARC discuss the journey to get it up and running and where it is today.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

And now for the gossip column: this is like “déjà vu all over again!” In Indonesia, the Lippo Group and Astro are still fighting (in court) over the failed Direct Vision DTH pay-TV joint venture. Now, the Jakarta press has reported the anti-corruption squad is investigating a Lippo exec in connection with somebody trying to bribe the court. First Media has denied it has any connection to the investigation. The reason we think we’ve been here before is that in 2008, another Lippo exec was arrested and convicted for bribing an official of Indonesia’s Competition Commission, also in connection with the dispute with Astro. (The evidence in that case was some damning pictures of money changing hands in an elevator.) And the 2008 convict and the 2016 suspect have the same last name! (Sindoro) No wonder we think we’ve heard this before! Meanwhile, there are allegations swirling about, concerning a purported member of the Broadcasting Commission (KPI) reportedly looking for donations from the Commission’s regulated TV networks.

Speaking of donations……it seems that Pirate Bay’s efforts to raise funds from the people who visit the site have not been very successful. Not very surprising, when you think about it……fundraisers normally like to solicit from people who have strong donation histories, not people whose main motivation seems to be escaping payment for the product they want!

Kevin Jennings

Vice President, Programme

Elsewhere in China, the online video-streaming platform iQIYI has set its sights firmly on the VR industry and announced at this week’s “iVR+ World Conference 2016” in Beijing that it intends to build the world’s largest Chinese language VR ecosystem. Meanwhile, in another move seen as a significant boost for the fledgling VR industry in China, Hubei Radio & Television Information Network and China Digital TV will begin working together to develop and promote Virtual Reality solutions for TV households in the country’s Hubei Province.

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

Sad news from LA this week, where producer Ian Sander has died at age 68. A relatively new friend and supporter of CASBAA, Ian accompanied his wife and partner Kim Moses at Convention 2014, and with her jointly led a CASBAA-sponsored Master Class in Production at Hong Kong's Baptist University. Best known for producing the long-running drama The Ghost Whisperer, the Sander/Moses team were also early to embrace online-TV crossover marketing opportunities, developing a multi-platform business called Slam 360. Over the course of his long career, Ian’s other TV credits include three Emmy nominations, some 600 hours of primetime TV drama and movies, as well as acting stints in '70s TV classics including The Mod Squad, Ironside, Baretta, and The Rockford Files. A scholarship fund has been set up in Ian’s memory at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts Television Production Programme.

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Member News

29 April, 2016

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

Christopher Slaughter CEO	The 7th annual Asia Pacific Operators Summit has wrapped in Bali, accompanied by a plethora of announcements from various participants. Among the announcements: a new joint venture from A+E Networks in India, the launch of BBC Player authenticated by Starhub in Singapore, Discovery unwrapped its 4K content deal in Korea, and its stake in OTT service RugbyPass, Hong Kong’s now TV let it be known it has UEFA EURO rights for 2016, Turner is bringing Warner TV and Oh!K to Indonesia, and Nickolodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards is going on LeEco.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	The digital marketplace is at an important pivot point requiring industry-wide collaboration and commitment to ensure ongoing consumer engagement with brand messages in media, according to the annual Interaction report into digital advertising produced by GroupM. Based on insights from 45 markets around the world, highlighted six macro-trends, including ad blocking, the integrity of digital supply, mobilisation and the expansion of app use, TV's transition to over-the-top, the application of data to marketing, and the expansion of e-commerce.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Censorship. It’s all the rage. In Bangladesh, there’s considerable concern about a new broadcast bill that will give the government “draconian” censorship powers over media outlets. Meanwhile in China, the authorities found a foreigner to praise their “family values” censorship. Amusingly, said foreigner has a Linked-In page which has itself been censored, as he belongs to a religious group that doesn’t meet with the authorities’ approval. (Read his “Chief Visionary Officer” item.) And in Thailand, a draft computer crime law will give the government more power to order removal of online content. (One can understand why this might be of greater concern than in other places — this is the same country where the Prime Minister is planning to jail online critics.) My fellow lovers of the Land of Smiles will enjoy this commentary by journalist-and-broadcaster Sutichai Yoon, entitled “Shhh….don’t tell me what you think.” He notes that the military’s laws governing campaigning on its latest constitutional referendum are so unclear that neither opponents nor proponents of the new charter can feel comfortable in speaking about it.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	While we’re on the subject of censorship, have a look at this column criticizing India’s film censorship. The author says it is tempting to heap abuse on the CBFC censors, but she points out that the problem is the whole legal framework of the censorship categories, which is totally inappropriate for modern circumstances. Maybe the unreality of the system is the reason that so many films are shown on TV without passing the censors first.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Apple is being forced to close down its iTunes business in China only seven months after it launched. Some believe that "the closure of the iTunes movie service is less surprising than the fact that it was ever being allowed to launch.” “The Apple case is not good news for the wider entertainment industry,” says one Asian media analyst. “In the last six months we’ve seen a number of deals lose their value. As releases and broadcasts are held back, some of our clients are beginning to ask if selling to China is worthwhile.” "Apple also revealed that the Chinese government had asked for its source code and that company had refused. So the closure of iTunes Movies and iBooks could be punishment."
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Astro’s Tribe OTT service is continuing to hop borders, launching in the Philippines in conjunction with mobile operator Globe. Tribe debuted in Indonesia last month, and will keep adding ASEAN markets going forward.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	This week saw the rollout of the latest season of Game of Thrones. Predictably, the “most pirated TV show of all time” soared to the top of the piracy charts. Down Under, the pirates were at full sail……this commentator notes that despite Foxtel dropping the price for the legitimate streams, piracy continued to soar. “Australians refused to fork out,” said the columnist. That pretty much says it all. But on the “good news” side of the ledger, the UK government (which has already demonstrated its commitment to protecting British creative industries) said they would propose making the penalties for online copyright theft the same as hard-goods infringement – up to 10 years in jail! Maybe if they did something like that in Australia the Cheap Charlies would find a reason to pay up……
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	The TV industry has long argued that reports of huge audiences for Facebook and YouTube don't tell the whole story. Now a TV trade group is proposing metrics that it says would put digital on the same footing as networks for the first time. One part of the study showed far more people are more engaged for far more time with late night content on the television while YouTube serves as a complementary platform for viral clips".
Yegee Chun Regulatory Assistant	Another player has joined the OTT wars this week: Fullscreen officially launched its online subscription service featuring original content from prominent YouTubers and traditional TV programming for $4.99, half the cost of YouTube Red. The talent agent-turned-online video content producer may not get much recognition, but Fullscreen is consistently within the top 3 YouTube partners and may well have plenty of reasons to out-perform YouTube Red.

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Member News

22 April, 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Apr 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	In case you wondered, the online video business in the region is expected to grow to US$35 billion over the next five years, according to the latest forecast from MPA. Their “Asia Pacific Online Video Distribution” report hit the streets this week, predicting 22% market growth by 2021, led principally by China, which accounts for 76% of the total number.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	In a week that saw better than expected quarterly results for Netflix and the announcement that its global distribution exceeded 80 million, Amazon has finally taken the gloves off and said that customers can now subscribe to a standalone video service that acts as a direct competitor . Until now, Amazon has only made video available as part of Amazon Prime, Amazon's annual subscription service that also includes free one-day delivery. The new service will be called Amazon Video and customers will be able to subscribe on a month-by-month basis. The price is also set at $1 cheaper than Netflix in the US. And Netflix quarterly results? They beat analyst projections for revenue and growth, yet saw their share price decline 12% after the closing bell as Wall Street didn’t like the projected Q2 number of additional sign ups which were around 15% off predictions.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	With tech disrupting business after business, the question one may ask is, who is looking to eat my lunch? If you are in the pay TV business, “the slow but inevitable fraying of the cable TV bundle has sparked a newly intense battle to win over audiences who have never been more in play.” "Alibaba, Apple, Facebook, and Google each want a piece of that action.” Fast Company goes through the tactics of each of these tech behemoths and the "implications for the entertainment industry, the tech world, and consumers around the globe”.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Okay, it’s still sort of in the realm of hype-of-the-month club, but it has to be acknowledged, there’s a groundswell behind VR that makes 3D look, well, positively flat by comparison. (Oh yes, and there’s lots of investment money, too.) New cameras are coming out, widespread live demos are being planned, everybody seems to be jumping on the bandwagon. Which means it’s probably time to start thinking seriously about how to tell stories using VR technology. Meanwhile, an in-depth Wired piece about Magic Leap, which is secretively working on VR’s red-headed step-cousin, “mixed reality” or “augmented reality”.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	As TV networks digital channels and advertisers in the US, prepare for the latest "upfronts" ad sales season, there are encouraging signs that adspend commitments could increase 3% to 5% this year. According to early estimates from industry insiders who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, TV is expected to be a winner this time after suffering three consecutive years of upfront declines as a proportion of total adspend. Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific will be the second-largest region with $171.51 billion, or 31.6% of global paid media spend. eMarketer has lowered growth expectations in Asia-Pacific for 2016 due to the gradual slowdown of key economies in the region.
Yegee Chun Regulatory Assistant	The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released its 2015 full-year internet advertising revenue report, a survey conducted by PwC. The results show that online ad revenues increased to a total of $59.6 billion, up 20.4% from 2014. Unsurprisingly, there has been tremendous growth in mobile-tailored advertising, as well as digital video and social media targeting. Facebook and Google claim a 64% share of total US digital ad revenue, a portion that is estimated to increase further in the coming months.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	When you read this article about “distributed content” companies like Buzzfeed and Mashable, your jaw will drop. (Best line in that article, by the way? “Clickbait is cheap, quality is expensive.”) The headlines are starting to show up all over; between missing revenue targets, laying off staff, and fears about Facebook’s intentions, there’s been a lot of ink lately about the future of the distributed content model, even here in the region. Meanwhile, the companies themselves are working the spin, but the recent news has definitely given nay-sayers a chance to say “nay” yet again.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	YouTube might think it is "remaking TV", but its strategy is missing a crucial component- an audience strategy writes Dominic Mill Meanwhile, back in the UK, YouTube has got itself into an unseemly spat with Thinkbox, and is currently nursing a bloody nose for what Thinkbox won't call – but I will – statistical malfeasance. It all goes back to a claim by YouTube last year that advertisers targeting millennials should give it 24pc of their TV budgets. And the claims continue with YouTube claiming new research shows 77 per cent of campaigns on its video site have "a higher return on investment than TV", but broadcasters insisted it was "no surprise" because brands spend "relatively low" sums with YouTube.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Every week I try to find an article that will get media executives thinking about the future. This one from Jim VandeHei, co-founder of Politico hits that mark; Escaping the Digital Media ‘Crap Trap’. "Just like the Web destroyed the newspaper world; mobile will destroy the desktop world and on-demand video will destroy the TV and cable world. But from the rubble will emerge a much better, more eclectic, more efficient way for all of us to watch, read and listen. It will be brimming with content we can be proud of—and happily pay for."
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	Sad news from the UK with the death of Victoria Wood. Wood was probably best known for her 1980s comedy series Victoria Wood: As Seen On TV and for her on-screen partnership with Julie Walters in the comedy sketch series Wood and Walters. She was one of the most influential TV comedy writers and comic actors of her generation, creating cult hits with Acorn Antiques and comedic, if sometimes dark TV sketches as well as musical parodies that inspired a new wave of female actors and writers on TV. Broadcast veteran Lord Grade said he placed her on par with Alan Bennett in terms of her writing. Wood was a five-time BAFTA winner, and was described as a national treasure. In her own words 'Life's not fair is it? Some of us drink champagne in the fast lane, and some of us eat our sandwiches by the loose chippings on the A597.'

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Member News

15 April, 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Apr 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	From the Department of Schadenfreude, this news: Comedian Louis C.K. is “millions of dollars in debt” after self-financing a new directly-distributed TV show. We started talking about Louis CK (real name Louis Székely) when he first distributed a live stand-up recording directly to his fans back in 2011 and did — at least by stand-up industry standards — extremely well out of it. Fast-forward four years, and his more ambitious four-camera undertaking, Horace and Pete (co-starring Steve Buscemi), has not gone quite as well. The first exercise was held up as an example for others to follow, the current imbroglio (although adored by critics all over) is being cited as a warning.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	The music industry has been on the warpath in recent weeks against the internet industry. (Now WHY would that happen?) A couple of weeks ago, the British music association BPI noted that in the past five years it has sent 200 million take-down requests to Google. BPI said it was too easy for deleted music to be re-uploaded, and called for replacing “notice and take-down” with “notice and stay-down,” and for removing pirate services from search results. Meanwhile, similar notes were sounded by the RIAA in the USA. Katy Perry and other well-known recording artists asked for amendments in the DMCA copyright law, saying it “has become the all-purpose shield that tech companies hide behind while they threaten the livelihood of music creators.” And in an interview with Re/code, RIAA chief Cary Sherman was asked why the music industry doesn’t just accept the inevitability of music availability on YouTube, and in a memorable response said “We accept the inevitability of death. It doesn’t mean we have to like it.”
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Netflix-watchers (as distinct from Netflix subscribers, if you know what I mean) can gorge on a lengthy Wired piece that goes behind the scenes of the company’s global launch and looks at infrastructure, global licensing deals, VPNs, and perhaps most bafflingly, global data & recommendation algorithms. Algorithms, it must be said, that sometimes lead to conspiracy theories (a phenomenon that goes back at least to 2002, when TiVo was accused of “outing” its users).
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	The analytics we get back about how News Views is read, strongly indicates that you like stories about Netflix. So in the spirit of ‘give the customer what they want’, I have collected a few interesting ones this week. Apparently, Netflix Is King of Paid Streaming, but Bruce Tuchman feels that they need to tailor their local services. The Curse of cancelled shows the downside of not getting through a full series.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	“If you build it they will come” – Facebook have unveiled a design for a high-quality, production-ready 3D-360 hardware and software video camera system. By building it, the company hopes to encourage content producers and to create more 360-degree videos for the, as yet, niche virtual reality sector. The camera can capture videos in 360 degrees and can broadcast in 8K. Camera shots are automatically rendered through stitching and rendering software which drastically lessens production time. This means that content producers will no longer need to do the job manually, which can take several weeks. Videos can be streamed not only via Gear VR and Oculus Rift but also on the Facebook app. It is described as the best camera of its kind…by Facebook, naturally.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	In Indonesia, the Kominfo ministry issued a circular letter, giving advance warning to OTT providers that they would have to obey the country’s laws, which means they’ll have to open in-country offices, pay taxes, etc. The Minister told the press that Blackberry, Twitter, Spotify and Google had all “expressed willingness to comply with the rules.” The rules they are supposed to comply with include those on content filtering, censorship, and national payment gateway usage. It’ll be interesting to see how that works out…….
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Dim the lights… and here we go. American Idol was a massive winner for Fox, but the final finale has aired. There are so many good stories with so many takes on the show, heck, phenomenon. Click on the piece that grabs you. Fox Chief Talks Road Ahead After ‘American Idol’. American Idol and the Evolution of Criticism. ‘American Idol’ Finale Reminds Viewers Why the Show Mattered. Why American Idol Was Never the Same After Simon Cowell Left. I’ll close off with… (in my best Ryan Seacrest voice) “….and THAT…was American Idol.” Or maybe not, Why Fox Might Want to Rethink Ending ‘American Idol’. Lay….out.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	In a surprise move, Sling TV, the US streaming TV service has announced a new “multi-channel” starter package offering costing US$20 per month with optional “extra” premium content channels. Essentially the service has dropped ESPN and Disney in favour of Fox and the YES Sports Network. No word on why they didn’t just add FOX, FX, Fox Sports, and the YES Network to the existing package, which was only launched last year, or used the new channels as an add on package. The new offering includes the YES Network used for Yankees Major League Baseball games. As a side note Comcast stopped offering YES to the Eastern seaboard customer base at the start of the year so this seems more a realignment of the Sling TV package than any unbundling of channels.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Even though a school of thought within TRAI, the broadcast carriage regulator of India, feels that the regulatory body should start dropping archaic regulations creating ground for light-touch regulations, status quo-ists want more regulations. Interoperability of STBs is one such area where TRAI has waded into causing heartburns in the industry. What’s more, it is using selectively data given by industry, some industry insiders point out, to drum up public support in a country where socialism in various form still exists.

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Member News

8 April, 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Apr 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	CASBAA’s appearances last week in India got noticed. We were in Mumbai and then Delhi, alongside police and industry officials from the UK, pointing out the advantages of the UK’s energetic approach to online piracy, including an official list of Infringing Websites that advertisers use to shun placing ads on pirate sites. (We covered this ground in last year’s CASBAA Convention as well.) India, with good official support for its increasingly active content industry, seems a likely Asian partner in suppressing ad malpractices.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Act like responsible grownups. This was the overall message that the government seems to be giving to the Indian media sector. Speaking at Frames 2016 in Mumbai late March, MIB Secretary Sunil Arora was categorical that the industry has to deal with issues like questionable ownership of news channels as the industry has been propagating self-regulation. Telecoms and IT Minister RS Prasad went a step further — and beyond his jurisdiction — to raise question marks on BARC’s measurement data — criticism that was countered by the ratings agency in all earnest.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Twitter just did an end-run on Amazon and Verizon to stream 10 NFL Thursday night games to the world. They apparently paid a mere $10 million for these rights, while CBS and NBC collectively paid $450 million to broadcast the same games. Though, Twitter will be streaming the CBS and NBC feeds of the games and will only have the rights to sell a small portion of the ads. And get this, Verizon already owns the mobile rights to NFL games for their customers. Nice work, NFL. The choice for viewers is amazing: free on Twitter, paid on Verizon and broadcast on CBS and NBC. The NFL is right, these games "will actually be hard to miss".
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	As we saw above, "Twitter is basically a cable company now" and then days later Facebook launches Facebook Live to everyone. Well not EVERYONE, just their 1.6 billion monthly active users. So if it wasn’t enough that Meerkat and Periscope were grabbing video viewers to watch live on their platforms, self-broadcasting is now just a button away on the Facebook app. The article states, "And it seems clear where Facebook will eventually go with this: right at traditional broadcast.” “We’re entering this new golden age of video,” says Zuckerberg. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you fast-forward five years and most of the content that people see on Facebook and are sharing on a day-to-day basis is video.” This “golden age" could mean there will be more folks sharing the same amount of gold.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	Verizon has announced it has agreed to buy a 24.5% stake in AwesomenessTV. In addition to its equity investment, Verizon and AwesomenessTV will create a first-of-its-kind premium short-form mobile video service featuring leading talent in front of and behind the camera. The new service will operate as a new and independent brand, and feature premium transactional content for a variety of audiences. The new premium content service will initially be exclusive to Verizon platforms in the United States, while AwesomenessTV will retain the right to sell content in the rest of the world.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Policy wonks will recall that three years ago the Taiwan NCC announced an intention to restructure its rate regulation for analogue cable TV packages. (Analogue? Still?) Well, the changes in the analogue era rules still haven’t been implemented yet; in theory it’s supposed to happen this year. NCC has tweaked the proposal from its original form; they eliminated a proposed cap on monthly subscription fees. But cable operators remain unhappy with too-heavy requirements for a la carte offers. That could kill lots of channels, they said. And some legislators don’t like that idea either.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	A new report from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) says a quarter of EU citizens aged between 15 and 24 have admitted to intentionally using illegal sources to access online content in the past 12 months. According to the report most say they do this because it is free, or cheaper than accessing content from legal sources. The research surveyed young people in each of the 28 EU Member States, seeking to understand how young EU citizens behave online, and to explore the main drivers and barriers for them in acquiring online content and physical goods both legally and illegally.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	And in Indonesia, the censorship wars continue. This time, the action is all focused on the free-to-air TV channels, with content censors at KPI seeking legislative teeth for their blasts at the channels. Separately, KPI’s plan to review the operations of the FTA channels was supported by leading Muslim organization Muhammadiyah, which says TV shows shouldn’t be allowed if they don’t “benefit society.”
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	The research firm GlobalWebIndex, says that over 40% of internet users in Indonesia are using a VPN, which is a markedly higher rate than in some European countries, such as the UK (16%) or The Netherlands (14%). Other Asian countries also have relatively high rates, including Thailand (39%), Vietnam (35%), India (33%), Taiwan (33%), Malaysia (32%) and China (29%). The global average is 25%. Looking at the survey results for Asia, it would appear that internet users in the region are using VPNs to access entertainment and news sites that the authorities would prefer to block. Examples of this are Indonesia's state-owned telecoms operator blocking access to Netflix and Vietnam blocking Facebook. It is also clear that some countries in the region are keen to restrict access to certain news sites, but there are less authoritarian motives at play in other nations, such as Singapore, which seeks to block access to file-sharing sites like The Pirate Bay.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Ooh! Ooh! What is it about oo names for OTT services? In SE Asia, we have Hooq. (No alternate meanings, it seems.) In South Korea, it’s Pooq. (Guess nobody in Seoul cares about the alternate meaning of that word.) And last week in India, Viacom18 launched its “Voot” OTT service. Well, at least they did a good job of choosing a happy name. Toot!
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Carat’s latest global forecasts highlights that advertising spend will reach US$538 billion in 2016, accounting for a +4.5% year-on-year increase. Fueled by high-interest media events taking place during the year – including the US presidential elections, Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics and the UEFA EURO 2016 championship the positive outlook for 2016 is predicted to continue into 2017, with Carat’s forecast highlighting a consistently strong year-on-year global advertising growth of +4.5%.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

Member News

1 April, 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Apr 1st. 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

The Oculus Rift was finally released this week. Rather than reading through a bunch of reviews, The Guardian provides core snippets from all the major Tech journals. In the VR TV space, Hulu has hopped on board with an app for Samsung Gear and is expected to launch a Rift app soon. If you still aren’t convinced of the uses of VR, the WSJ’s piece, Why You Should Try That Crazy Virtual Reality Headset, may change your mind.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

Looks like China’s police are finally getting serious in taking action against some of the “black box” streaming media piracy syndicates. They say they’ve prosecuted 422 people and confiscated over 830,000 boxes in the last six months. This is a very welcome development, but it seems to be still limited to syndicates selling their boxes inside China. The export pirates haven’t been touched yet. Meanwhile in the UK, the police have continued their work in breaking up box syndicates. The Torrentfreak website comments “the advent of cheap Android-based equipment has brought the streaming of movies, TV shows, sports and other content into the living rooms of countless non-tech savvy individuals….plug-and-play piracy is now a reality and rights holders everywhere are more than tired of it.” Got that right.

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

Wired has a comprehensive article on Netflix’s Grand, Daring, Maybe Crazy Plan to Conquer the World. This could just be the start for Netflix. I may be wrong, but those who think that Netflix is going to be happy with only selling TV shows and movies probably thought that Amazon was going to be happy just selling books.

Kevin Jennings

Vice President, Programme

Last year they said that, bizarrely, Australia would be taking part in Eurovision. This year the European Broadcasting Union has announced it has signed an exclusive option with Australia’s SBS to establish an Asian version of the Eurovision Song Contest. SBS and production partners Blink TV are exploring the opportunity to establish the Eurovision Song Contest concept in the Asia Pacific region. Capitalising on the success, production values and scale of the Eurovision Song Contest, Eurovision Asia would encompass Asia Pacific nations, bringing together up to 20 countries to compete in one live annual Grand Final. The inaugural event is planned to be hosted in Australia in 2017 with broadcast rights being licensed on a global basis. If you’re still unsure what Eurovision is all about check out a few of the previous contestants including a relatively unknown Celine Dion singing for Switzerland, the winning Herrys Diggi loo Diggy lay, and of course ABBA.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

The Washington Post takes an interesting look at children’s programming online. Netflix is trying to appeal to kids, in an effort to be a go-to service for the whole family, but children’s advocates are worried, noting that (surprise surprise) there aren’t any rules in the online environment. And some find Netflix’s “family-friendly” series to be not friendly enough. One interesting factoid is buried near the end of the Post article: Netflix is finding that kids are consistent around the world; 7 of the 10 most-watched kids shows are consistently top-rated in all countries (well, at least all the ones Netflix was serving when that data was compiled.) Kids will be kids, I guess.

Kevin Jennings

Vice President, Programme

The latest global viewing figures are in for February online viewing – and while this is not an exhaustive list it’s interesting to see the Indian homegrown music label T-Series made it to the top 10 YouTube channels worldwide with 455.4 million views across the month. The number one position was retained by Justin Bieber, with his videos watched 721.6m times in February. Bieber now has more than 20 million subscribers to his channel, and is about to reach 10 bn lifetime views. The Wrestling body WWE had the third-biggest channel in February and The Ellen Show also appeared in the top 10. Looking specifically at the US online video content property video viewing at YouTube.com, racked up 182.2 million unique viewers. Facebook followed with 81.1 million viewers, then Yahoo Sites with 58.2 million, BroadbandTV with 45.3 million and VEVO with 44.2 million.

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

Sad news from Al Jazeera as the broadcaster announced it is cutting 500 jobs with most of the layoffs being at the company’s Doha headquarters. . CEO Al Anstey said the business model was “simply not sustainable in light of the economic challenges“. In a memo, delivered to staff in both English and Arabic, the company pointed to a changing media landscape as a reason for the cuts. Al Jazeera launched in 1996 and now includes 70 bureaux worldwide. The latest cuts come after Al Jazeera announced the closure of its US offshoot earlier in the year. With Al Jazeera America shutting down in April, the AJAM online staff have launched bestofajam.com, a website featuring the profiles of more than 50 soon-to-be-out-of-work digital journalists as they start their job hunt.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

Censorship rules applied by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), continue to attract a lot of controversy. KPI has taken to regularly trumpeting the number of “violations” of its broadcasting codes that it finds by the privately-owned terrestrial broadcasting networks. Others are retorting that a review of the networks’ performance should be based on a holistic view of their activities and not just on KPI’s finger-wagging. And a drafter of the Broadcasting Law wrote that KPI’s approach violates the Press Law, which prohibits it from constraining activities of the press. Meanwhile, rights groups see KPI’s activities as part of a pattern of government measures having a chilling effect on freedom of expression.

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

When petroleum to retail to telecoms to media behemoth Reliance Industries’ chairman Mukesh Ambani made an appearance at this week’s Frames media conference in Mumbai after 12 years, many people were stumped. What’s the big announcement was the question bandied around. Dwelling on Reliance JIO’s 4g services, Ambani said the service would improve mobile and Internet coverage from the current 15-20 per cent (of the Indian population to 70 per cent on day one. Cost? Wait and see, he smiled. But now a media report reveals the JIO sim cards could be made available at a cost of Rs 200/USD 3 approximately for 75GB of 4G data, 4,500 minutes of call time and other freebies. Do we see competition wringing its head already even before the JIO service is launched?

Kevin Jennings

Vice President, Programme

Northern Sky Research (NSR) have said that they estimate that around 800 ultra HD channels will be transmitted via satellite over the next ten years. In a recently released report, NSR found that while commercial Ultra HD channels in East Asia have been available for over a year, the new format expands its geographic reach on linear TV platforms. NSR predicts that by 2017 almost all regions worldwide will have Ultra HD channels available, and even developing regions see content by the end of the decade. The plunging price of 4K TV sets is accelerating demand in the new format, setting 4K TV penetration rates to rise faster than the initial introduction of HDTVs.

Jane Buckthought

Advertising Consultant

A recent report found that the more engaged viewer recall more ads. It concluded that “Not all TV audiences are created equal: we’ve long believed that viewers respond differently to commercials depending on how they feel about what they’re watching,”

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

Variety’s cover-story: Inside Endemol Shine’s Ambitious Plan to Conquer Global TV sheds light on this behemoth of a production-distribution outfit. “The great uniqueness of this company is you could never ever build this from scratch now”, says CEO Sophie Turner Laing. The article continues, “It has the widest global reach of any pure-play production-distribution outfit. Last year, the company was responsible for the production of some 733 TV series, a volume dwarfing that of the international TV production operations of most U.S. majors.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

Notable quotes from this week’s news:

“Subscribers have to spend money to watch TV and they have the right to demand high-quality programs. Meanwhile, foreign TV channels are obviously better than Vietnamese ones.” — a TV subscriber in Hanoi, miffed that government content quotas may reduce the foreign programming on Vietnam pay-TV platforms. “For most people, the idea that we need new federal regulations to give us more choice in TV is ridiculous on its face. From Netflix to Roku boxes to Apple TV, we have more ways to find and watch TV than ever…” — US commentator, trashing the FCC’s “Allvid” efforts to “open up the set-top box”

“After new regulations on what can be shown on broadcast and online TV dramas in China came into force recently, it is not clear that much more than the official daily activities of Party leaders is left to watch.” – An exec at McKinsey China, commenting on the latest Chinese censorship squeeze.

“We routinely seek to identify and disrupt those intent on making quick cash from piracy and will use every enforcement opportunity to bring them to justice,” – the head of the UK Police IP Crimes Unit, commenting on the break-up of a piracy syndicate that was distributing streaming media “black boxes” allowing access to pay-TV programming.

Jane Buckthought

Advertising Consultant

A popular discussion, how is viewing changing. In the US, Nielsen see it as a life-stage feature more than an age range.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

Member News

24 March, 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Mar 24th. 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	Astro has launched Tribe, its regional OTT service targetted at the ASEAN region. The service has kicked off in Indonesia, in partnership with mobile operator Axiata, and will pursue a mobile-first strategy, seeking “…complementary win-win partnerships with local telecommunications and media companies in each market.” Content partners include Fox Sports, Turner, and CJ E&M; others are expected.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Meanwhile, Taiwan-based film distributor and producer Catchplay has launched its OTT service, “Catchplay On Demand.” In addition to its home market Taiwan, Catchplay is reportedly partnering with Starhub for an imminenet Singapore launch, while in Indonesia, it will join forces with Telkom Indonesia. Both transactional (TVOD) and subscription (SVOD) services will be rolled out, featuring content licencsed from NBC Universal, Warner Bros and Disney, among others.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	It’s not yet a certified medical condition but I’m sure it will be one soon. “Buffer rage” is a real thing and described as “a state of uncontrollable fury or violent anger induced by the delayed or interrupted enjoyment of streaming video content from over-the-top (OTT) services.” According to media firm IneoQuest, 51 percent of consumers who watch online or streaming video have been frustrated to the point of rage as a result of buffering. Sports buffering outweighed all other video categories in its ability to inflict rage in viewers. Maybe “Netflix and chill” really leads to something else.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	In Thailand, the slanging match between the NBTC and its pet digital terrestrial licensees continues. The licensees complain that the NBTC hasn’t done enough to promote DTT. They’re going to court, to try to fight the license payments the law demands (resulting from an unexpectedly rich auction process). The NBTC has defended itself before analysts and fund managers (an important political constituency, I guess), noting that it has been trying so very hard to subsidize more people to buy DTT boxes, but gee, they aren’t buying. Seems they’re happy with the satellite TV they have now. Meanwhile, the satellite TV providers might be forgiven for thinking the NBTC’s finger is already heavily on the scales, in favor of DTT. The DTT platinum-channel licensees made the bad business decisions that drove the bidding up to stratospheric levels…..and they’ve already benefitted from NBTC forgiveness of annual revenue taxes. In a related item, True Visions, facing mounting fines, gave in and said it would bow to the regulator’s demands and put the NBTC’S pet channels at the head of the line up. But True won’t give up its court case, arguing it alone invested to create its network, and the NBTC has no business determining channel numbers on that network.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	The forward -thinking Spanish football league has announced La Liga’s football schedule is set to change from next season, to accommodate live football programming for Asia’s prime-time slots. Their international strategy has been focused on adapting match times for viewers all over the globe, even at the expense of its domestic audience and starting next season, La Liga will open a time slot at 1pm (GMT+1) to reinforce its presence in the Asian market. Last year the Spanish league moved match kick –off times by 15 minutes to 5.15pm UK time to accommodate a British law that prevents live football being screened between 2.45pm and 5.15pm which meant British viewers missed the first 15 minutes of any match getting under way at 5pm.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Sorry, Kevin – I can’t resist this one: Earth to regulators….earth to regulators. On what planet does it make sense to forbid football broadcasts until 5:15 pm? Do you really think that’s going to stop any red-blooded young Brit soccer fan from tuning in, after school? Do you really think that digital natives don’t know how to find whatever they want online? And the bigger question: does any government really have the power to dictate viewing choices nowadays? (Besides, it’s probably better that they watch soccer rather than porn. Watching porn just makes them feel bad about themselves…..)
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	The Bangladeshi government has proposed setting up a dedicated company to run its first satellite ‘Bangabandhu-1′. A proposal has been sent to Prime Minister for her approval and the State Minister for Telecom Tarana Halim has said that she hopes the proposal will be passed quickly to enable the company to get down to business. Halim said the satellite will break even within seven years of its 2017 launch.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	BuzzFeed vet Jon Steinberg does a great podcast where he talks about his latest venture, Cheddar, which plans to broadcast live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for the full work day. He talks about a new crop of cable channels “to create modern versions of Discovery Networks” and others. “Millennials are a bigger opportunity than people realize. You have got an entire generation and a half that doesn’t watch television. The dominant media of our lifetime is no longer applicable to an entire generation. What’s a bigger opportunity than that?”
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Zenith predicted advertising spend in ‘fast track Asia’, which includes China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, will rise by 8.9 pert cent in 2016 and at an annual average of 8.5 per cent until 2018 and Global advertising revenues will rise by 4.6 percent this year, ZenithOptimedia projects, reaching $579 billion, up from the 3.9-percent growth rate in 2015.
Yegee Chun Regulatory Assistant	On Wednesday, Microsoft launched Tay.ai, a new AI chat bot that uses millennial internet speak, or as it describes itself, “Microsoft’s A.I. fam from the internet that’s got zero chill.” Tay specifically aims to engage 18- to 24-year-olds through casual and playful conversation on Twitter, Snapchat, Kik, and other social media. Already, it’s been the subject of many a screenshot on the web for its age-appropriate comments, including her responses to pictures of some of Microsoft’s failed ventures.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

Member News

18 March, 2016

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

Christopher Slaughter CEO	Hong Kong’s NOW TV is the latest platform in the region to announce a partnership with streaming giant Netflix, integrating the service into its set-top boxes and new 4K all-in-one appliance “now one” starting in Q2 this year. This is definitely part of a broader trend that’s emerged since Netflix began partnering with cable companies in late 2014; so far this year, it’s also struck partnership deals with Starhub and Singtel.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Lots of governments in Asia are focused on Netflix (lucky them!), but as we in the industry know, there are also plenty of other OTT services also coming online. Taiwan is having a public debate about OTT policy because Chinese internet TV company iQiyi is seeking to enter Taiwan’s market. Mainland media investment in Taiwan has long been controversial, and politicians in the now-ruling DPP have expressed alarm about mainland OTT platforms entering the market. But the chairman of the regulators at the NCC pointed out there are no laws allowing them to regulate internet content. Attention to this issue is likely to continue.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Other notable stories in the OTT realm this week: Turner Broadcasting said it plans to jump into the direct-to-consumer business with a couple of products by the end of the year. At the same time, CBS Predicts 8 Million Subscribers for CBS All Access and Showtime Streaming Services by 2020. Meanwhile closer to home, Celestial Tiger and LeEco team up for horror OTT, Thrill 360.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	It wasn’t exactly a nail-biter, as these deals go, but Youku Tudou shareholders have approved the company’s acquisition by digital behemoth Alibaba. That means Youku Tudou’s 290 million active users will be added to Alibaba’s 390 million, which makes for a pretty compelling logic. It’s an all-cash transaction, and although Youku Tudou will de-list from the NY Stock Exchange, the brand will continue to operate independently under Alibaba’s ownership.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Just in time for the FCC’s presumptive draft approval of the Charter/Time Warner Cable merger proposal, Variety is featuring a lengthy cover story on “Cable Cowboy” John Malone, positively chock full o’ speculation about what his Liberty Global is up to. But it’s also a pretty good look at the “content consolidation” landscape among US media companies, filtered through the prism of Malone’s various holdings, and quotes the man himself saying on CNBC late last year: “Clearly there is still room in the media sector to create some bigger and more global entities.” (That quote comes about 15-16 minutes in, but there’s more than 45 other minutes of Malone wisdom in that link, so fill yer boots!)
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Every week, I try to provide at least one article that gets you thinking about where this business is going and how you can play a part. This week I link to the 3rd in a series of articles from REDEF that does just that. And like the other two, it’s a must read. By Obsessing over the Present, Big Media Has Forgotten Its Past and Endangered Its Future (But It’s Not Too Late). If you missed them before, click for Part 1 and Part 2. Worth your time.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	In piracy news this week, French police jailed the 22-year old operator of pirate website Full Stream, which according to one newspaper, was “one of the world’s most-visited French language websites.” In Italy, the police busted a “hybrid” pay-TV piracy ring, which delivered content to its users either by hacking satellite CA systems or just streaming it over the web. And in Australia the first site-blocking suit seems to be moving forward and the press says the key hearing will be held on May 6. Meanwhile, the content industry announced a rebranded copyright alliance called Creative Content Australia.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	Napster’s co-founder Sean Parker is ruffling more than a few feathers with a controversial new business plan to make new movies available in the home for $50 on the same day they hit theaters via an encrypted set-top box . While Parker has said he would offer a revenue split, hundreds of smaller independent and art house theaters are crying foul. In an open letter to Penn’s new company, the Screening Room, the Art House Convergence — representing 600 cinema owners — said the proposed model is “incongruous with the movie exhibition sector by devaluing the in-theater experience and enabling increased piracy”. Major US theatre circuits Cinemark and Regal Entertainment aren’t expected to immediately partner with The Screening Room, and Hollywood studios may be reluctant to license their films unless a majority of the bigger circuits go along, even as a raft of top filmmakers, including Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams and Peter Jackson, are reportedly supporting the Screening Room, saying the plan is good for cinema owners since it will target consumers who don’t normally go to the movies.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Not surprisingly, the idea of replacing national copyright laws with a US-style “fair use” system continues to be much discussed. After Hong Kong (where a “fair use” amendment went down the tubes, along with other Copyright Ordinance changes), it’s on the table in Australia, and the Sydney Morning Herald published a very good column explaining that “The only certainty of moving to a US style fair use system is that a significant increase in litigation will be required to determine its boundaries.” “Proponents of fair use say copyright stifles innovation but cannot say how,” says the author. And from far-off Winnipeg, in Canada, comes a heartfelt plea from an author that it’s time for folks to consider the negative effects of their actions: “I’ve tried to get the pirated copies (of her books) removed from the web,” she says, “but it’s like a game of whack-a-mole. Folks just keep passing along my work illegally for free.”
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	Twenty-five members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who are of Asian descent — among them two-time best director Oscar winner Ang Lee and the actor George Takei have sent a letter to the organization protesting “tasteless and offensive skits” about Asians that were featured on the 88th Academy Awards on Feb. 28, the same ceremony at which the Academy’s alleged bias against black people was a primary focus of host Chris Rock. The Oscar-night references to Asians that have members of the Asian community most upset: a skit in which Rock introduced three Asian children as Academy accountants, and comments ad-libbed by presenter Sacha Baron Cohen that insinuated that Asians have small genitalia. Dawn Hudson, AMPAS, has responded and called their concerns “valid” , promising that “future Oscar telecasts [will] be more culturally sensitive.”
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Ever have a thumbstopper moment? Maybe its because you’ve passed the age of 24, or more likely you have them but had no idea they had a name and for more info click here.
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Amidst all the hoo-hah about VR over the past couple years (remember the Gartner hype curve…?), the latest has been Sony’s announcement that it will launch its Playstation VR headseat in October for US$300. For those of you suffering from VR hype fatigue, there is a compelling argument that this one might be the gadget that actually cracks the market open.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Hey, we all hate paying bills, right? But one Bangladesh cop, confronted with a request to pay his cable TV bill, just pulled out his gun and shot the bill collector. This is not what the pay-TV industry means when it asks the police to pay more attention to our issues……..
Christopher Slaughter CEO	During the OTT Summit a couple weeks ago, we talked about gamer-focused streaming platform twitch.tv, which allows gamers to watch other gamers playing games (I know, right?). Now the platform is branching out in a bizarre way, running a marathon of classic cooking show “The French Chef” by Julia Childs. It seems like the real reason for running these is to give twich’s chronically ADD viewers a chance to make sarcastic live comments… a typical contribution, from user outergrafia: “THINGS JUST GOT VEAL.”
Christopher Slaughter CEO	And while it might not be related to Julia Childs, it was only a matter of time… the trend toward legalisation of cannabis in the US has created a market opportunity for… you guessed it… “Weed TV.” (As distinct from the TV show “Weeds” that is.) There are at least two companies exploiting the niche (and providing financial info on pot-related stocks), so this might be more than just a pipe-dream. Just don’t expect to see either channel go beyond the Internet any time soon.

Some additional links you might be interested in:

Member News

11 March, 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Mar 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	Facebook is swallowing everything. That looks like a click-bait headline, but it is the rather daunting premise of Columbia Journalism School professor Emily Bell, who says “…social media hasn’t just swallowed journalism, it has swallowed everything… political campaigns, banking systems, personal histories, the leisure industry, retail, even government and security.” In case you wondered, Bell doesn’t think that’s exactly a GOOD thing; she also calls Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon the “four horsemen of the Apocalypse (five if you add in Microsoft)”.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	So after all the filibustering and misdirection and populist posturing, the Hong Kong Government has yanked the Copyright Bill from consideration by the Legislative Council. They ended the deadlock about this time last week (just as we sent out our last edition of News Views). CASBAA alumnus Hugh Stephens (now in Canada) looked back to HK in his copyright blog, and warned against “a push to adopt loosely defined and contentious “fair use” provisions that would require extensive litigation to interpret and codify,” which was a big part of the HK debate. On our part, many of you will have seen what we really think about the whole thing; basically, we won’t be holding our breath for the HK legislation to come back again in the charged political environment here, but meantime, we’ll be watching (and in some cases working towards) legal reform in other Asian jurisdictions. Watch this space.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Does your job include planning for your company’s future? If so, you need to READ THIS ARTICLE, After TV: Video’s Future will be bigger, More Diverse & Precarious Than It’s Past. Better top up your coffee first, it’s in-depth.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	So, for those who like to see the bits (of programming) that Asian censors try to block, here’s the link to the “gay love” series that the Chinese censors have ordered off the net , with English subtitles. (I hope Youtube is sharing the ad revenue with the creators…..) Frankly, it’s pretty tame – the juicy bits that Singapore’s censors cut from “Game of Thrones” are a lot better. But the mainland’s censors are pretty catholic (small “c”) in their cutting. Aussie broadcaster SBS carried a blog noting that “the scope of the censorship extends to…witchcraft, reincarnation, smoking, drinking…underage love… and “scenes which expose the methods adopted by detectives and show in detail how they crack cases.” Says SBS’s commentator: “By these standards, it is unclear if the Chinese equivalent of Sesame Street, Zhima Jie: Da Niao Kan Shijie, would even pass the test.” And Indonesian netizens are worried the KPI censors could go after Donald Duck; after all “Donal Bebek” doesn’t wear any pants…..
Christopher Slaughter CEO	Ad technology company TubeMogul is playing David to Google’s digital advertising Goliath, launching a campaign to highlight what it calls the search behemoth’s “conflicts of interest,” “misaligned business incentives,” and “walled garden” approach to online ads. Basically, the campaign is calling out how Google uses its clout to force brands to buy ads using Google’s technology and rules, whether they like it or not. As you might imagine, there’s no love lost between the two companies, since Google cut off third parties from buying YouTube ads directly via its DoubleClick Ad Exchange last summer.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	“Most consumers should buy back their time, they should go get a DVR, they should ad-block, they should add avoid”, says Fox advertising executive, Joe Marchese. The link is to a video from Code/Media 2016 that everyone in the TV space should appreciate. “Either advertising, as a market, fixes itself or there will be no ads.” “We are heading towards this fork in the road where quality content can’t survive on advertising…there is just no argument that argues otherwise.” The question begs, how do YOUR viewers value THEIR time?
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	As Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) muscles into media with a $20 billion bet on TV, telecom, India waits with bated breath at the array and quality of service because lot of bundling of services is going to happen. On the other hand, younger brother Anil Ambani is slowly attempting to get out of media sector. Speculations abound there may be a new round of corporate war between the brothers, but insiders in both companies say otherwise. Makes sense as few can take on the money and political power exuded by RIL.
Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme	Netflix appears to be taking a more aggressive stand against VPN’s which in turn has led to support for an online petition demanding that Netflix change the blocking policy. Meanwhile a new survey reveals that the VPN blocker may lead to more piracy. Netflix is dependent on studios and networks for much of its streamed content and the VPN crackdown is a way to show Hollywood studios that they respect the regional licensing agreements. Meanwhile VPN services say they have massive user bases, in a few cases specifically for accessing Netflix with some VPN services already claiming that they have found a tech fix to get around Netflix’s block.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	The CASBAA 2020 eSports session at the recent OTT Summit was extremely eye-opening for the majority in the audience. For those who missed it, or want to learn more, The Complicated Past (And Future) Of esports on TV does the subject justice. “Investing in esports may be a way to stave off television’s slow death, attracting viewers who may have previously dismissed the medium.” “For television, the math is simple. Networks are losing viewers to the Internet, especially among younger demographics. The esports demographic skews young and male, with only 28 percent over the age of 35, a key to advertisers looking to build lasting brand identity.”
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	Finally the government admits it: that ongoing cable digitisation is benefitting all. The Economic Survey, a government report released late February, states that both the State and federal governments have gained with digital rollout in the form of higher tax collection owing to increasing transparency in the system. MIB also informed Parliament recently that digitisation had been completed in 18 states and Union Territories and nearing completion in seven other. Now, for the final push in Phase IV.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	The number of paying IPTV subscribers in the Asia Pacific region overtook paying satellite TV ones in 2015, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. While in the USA, Connected TV reaches more than half of broadband homes however will viewing patterns change? According to a new report Non-linear viewing of content is set to continue to grow over the next three years, but it is not as likely to cannibalise linear TV viewing as in recent years, according to new research.

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