News

TURNER’S POGO CHANNEL LAUNCHES NEW SILENT SLAPSTICK COMEDY SERIES ‘ANDY PIRKI’

Follows the daily escapades of misfits a dinosaur called Andy and Pirki the caveman

MUMBAI, INDIA (November 27, 2017) – Turner India has commissioned Andy Pirki, an animated series about Andy, a pink dinosaur, and his friend Pirki, a grown-up with a heart of a child. Produced by AUM Animation Studios, the weekly show debuts exclusively on Turner’s POGO channel on Friday, December 3.

The non-dialogue slapstick celebrates an unusual friendship between the lead characters thrown into funny situations. Andy is an intelligent pink dino and the last of his species while the simple-minded Pirki is separated from the human world. Their unique circumstances led the duo to develop a special bond and become the best of friends.

Talking about the show, Krishna Desai, Executive Director & Network Head – Kids, South Asia, Turner India, said, “Kids love light-hearted humour more than ever before – and with Andy Pirki, we’ve developed a truly unique non-dialogue show using contemporary storytelling. This brand-new homegrown weekly, will air in primetime on POGO. We hope that our audiences will not only enjoy but also relate to Andy Pirki’s lovable characters and the hilarious situations in which they find themselves.”

The show launch comes shortly after the debut of Tik Tak Tail in September on POGO. That series, from Mumbai-based Maya Digital Studios, follows a cute rabbit and a ferocious tiger who are constantly on the run.

Shreekaanth Dass, Managing Director, AUM Animation Studios, added, “The initial idea to produce Andy Pirki came to us in the inception year of AUM Animation Studios in 2009. Andy Pirki has already won multiple industry awards for best animation in India and international markets. We are excited to bring this fun-filled, action-packed entertainer series to the audience through POGO. The characters have a lovable persona of their own that promises to take them on a fantasy quest.”

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Watch a preview here: https://vimeo.com/244595779
The video can also be embedded using this code:

Awards won by Andy Pirki
• FICCI FRAMES ‘ BAF ‘ award 2015, 2016 & 2017 – Category: Best animated episode (National)
• FICCI FRAMES ‘ BAF ‘ award 2015 & 2017 – Category: Best animated episode (International)
• DIGICON6 India awards 2015 – Category: NextGen India

About POGO
Catering to a generation of kids who bounce higher, play smarter, think louder and dream bigger, POGO is Turner’s only-for-India kids’ entertainment network, launched in 2004. POGO is amongst India’s leading kids’ channels in India featuring both animated and live action content that spans multiple genres from comedy and art, to games and curiosity. Its website – www.pogo.tv – is a highly interactive kids’ portal with exciting features and content including games, applications, video-on-demand, message boards and mini-sites of popular POGO shows. The channel boasts popular shows like Chhota Bheem, Mighty Raju, Tom and Jerry, Mr. Bean and Tik Tak Tail. POGO is available nationwide in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

About Turner Asia Pacific
Turner Asia Pacific creates and distributes award-winning brands throughout the region, running 61 channels in 14 languages in 42 countries. These include CNN International, CNNj, CNN, HLN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, POGO, Toonami, Warner TV, Oh!K, TNT, TCM Turner Classic Movies, truTV, MondoTV, TABI Channel, and HBO, HBO HD and WB in South Asia. Turner manages the business of Pay- and Free-TV-channels, as well as Internet-based services, and oversees commercial partnerships with various third-party media ventures; it teams with Warner Bros. and HBO to leverage Time Warner’s global reach. Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific, Inc. (“Turner Asia Pacific”) is a Time Warner company.

For further information, please contact:
James Moore, Turner Asia Pacific
+852 3128-3720 / james.moore@turner.com

24 November, 2017

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

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

The Internet Hysteria Machine is churning out lots of full-throated screams about the FCC’s intended reversal of the full-on regulation of the ISP industry adopted in the name of “net neutrality” under the Obama administration. What else can you call it when Popular Mechanics, for Pete’s sake, blares forth this headline: “FCC Is Revving Up To Destroy The Internet As We Know It.” Very insightful, eh? Conducive to understanding the issues? Nah…as this blogger noted, discussion of the issues gets drowned in a sea of partisan passions. Anyway, the new regs are likely to get tied up in court for a long time to come. Or maybe Congress will actually do its job, and pass some legislation. Paragraph for policy wonks, who may want to actually look at the 200+ pages of the draft order; there are some thought-provoking issues buried in it. What I see is a move away from over-regulation (e.g. banning paid prioritisation), but a swing of the pendulum all the way to under-regulation. The draft abolishes the rules against blocking or throttling websites, too, in favour of relying on the fact that “numerous ISPs, including the four largest fixed ISPs, have publicly committed not to block or throttle the content that consumers choose”, and that there’s no real evidence that consumers in the past were prevented from accessing (legal) content by blocking or throttling. But I have to say, that’s only modestly reassuring – after all, before 2016 there was no evidence of malign forces using social media to steal elections, either…..

Clare Bloomfield

Director, Policy & Research

Whilst much of the focus of the industry news this week is obviously on the US and the FCC roll-back of net neutrality, research from the other part of the world shows that the UK is at the epicentre of the explosion in OTT VOD services across the European Union and Turkey, although the Dutch are apparently catching up fast. Although, as a piece by the BBC shows, statistics and measuring can often be misleading, especially if you are trying to measure how much media has been consumed online.

Cathryn Chase

Regulatory Assistant

The UK’s Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), often heralded as the world leader in anti-piracy enforcement, has released an official guidance on Illicit Streaming Devices (ISDs), in which they state their stance on the legality of ISDs. In the guidance, the government clarifies that “the devices are legal when used to watch legitimate, free-to-air, content; they become illegal once they are adapted to stream illicit content”. The guidance also offers useful information on identifying ISDs, and the dangers of using these devices. The legality of ISDs has been a grey area for consumers and governments alike, but strong statements from intellectual property offices like this one go a long way in clarifying the reality of the situation.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has continued its enforcement campaign against “Kodi” repositories housing piracy apps. A bunch of developers received cease-and-desist notices, and some prominent piracy-oriented add-ons have closed down and left the market. But it’s not going to be completely smooth going, as some of the developers are vowing defiance. One (pursued by Dish-TV) is looking for crowdfunding to pay legal costs so he can resist, in the courts. He’s worried about being unable to pay for lawyers. Of course, his financial prospects would improve if he’d stop the piracy and get an honest job…..

Jane Buckthought

Advertising Consultant

In 1996, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 November to be World Television Day. On this very special – if rather arbitrary – date, we are meant to spend the day celebrating, promoting and proclaiming the power of telly – which is still worth doing. With all the palaver about digital, TV broadcasters and trade bodies from around the world have joined together for the first time to release global figures that look to prove TV’s effectiveness as an advertising medium. The Global TV Deck compiles data from an initial 19 countries to give a more robust picture of TV’s reach, popularity, resilience, trust, impact, and effectiveness across different regions.

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

In my ongoing effort to try to dominate OTT related stories in News Views here are the ones I found most interesting this week. Find out What Pay-TV operators must do to keep the ‘Content Connoisseurs’ happy. Defined as fickle, demanding and quick to churn… reminds me of a an ex, or two. See how TV networks are addressing the evolving demands of marketers and audiences. My fave line, “is someone watching an episode of their favourite program on catch-up during the middle of the day now worth the same value to an advertiser as the same viewer watching during ‘traditional prime time”? China, Middle East, Australia and Africa: Launching OTT in emerging markets on four continents. And because it comes to the heart of OTT and massive disruption in the industry, Murdoch Sale Talks Underscore Digital’s Effect in Disrupting Hollywood. “Malone, an architect of the cable service industry, said it was essentially game over for the old guard to catch up with Netflix.” “The only counter-attack, in the view of many biz watchers, is for the largest content providers and distributors to grab market share through acquisitions and to become more global as fast as their feet can take them overseas.” More stories on the CASBAA OTT Group Newsfeed.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

Here’s a juicy tidbit for longtime observers of Taiwan’s cable wars. The NCC has moved against cable MSO Kbro for unplugging a couple of channels originated by FTA broadcaster Formosa TV, after FTV did a carriage deal with Chung Hwa Telecom’s MOD platform. Everybody knows that for years the cable operators wouldn’t let channels carried on MOD also appear on their platform, but the NCC now says they are going to enforce laws and antitrust settlements requiring equal access for all channels. Stay tuned.

Jane Buckthought

Advertising Consultant

WARC (an online service offering advertising best practice, evidence and insights from the world’s leading brands) has released its first Global Ad Trends Report, offering new insights into global adspend trends. The study shows that TV accounts for 66% of media spend in successful high budget ($10m+) ad campaigns, 8% for low budget campaigns (up to $500k), and between 25-60% for mid-budget campaigns ($500k to $10m). Despite the rise of online advertising, high-budget campaigns continue to focus on TV, which accounts for 24% of daily media consumption. WARC’s data also reveals that TV drew 34.9% ($141.8bn) of global adspend last year whilst the proportion of budget allocated to TV has also increased.

See more at warc.com.

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

The tug-of-war between Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications and user-generated content (UGC) platforms continues. The MIC Minister told Parliament that Facebook hasn’t been sufficiently cooperative in blocking what the government calls “toxic” content. Google and YouTube have been better, he said. The government is looking at legislating new rules (with possible penalties), and also at promoting indigenous Vietnamese social media platforms that might be more cooperative.

Member News

Additional News

Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) and CASBAA’s Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) close down Australian illicit streaming device operation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Melbourne, Australia, 28 November 2017 – Following a joint investigation in Australia by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) and CASBAA’s Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) a large supplier of IPTV set-top boxes, pre-loaded to play pirated movies, television shows, sports programming, and other content has had these operations closed down in Australia.

The Melbourne-based company that had been selling these piracy devices in Asia for a number of years has ceased selling the boxes, which contained pre-loaded apps enabling easy access to creative content belonging to ACE and CASBAA/CAP member companies. The company owners also agreed to take necessary steps to prevent customers who had already purchased these piracy devices from accessing ACE and CASBAA/CAP member company movies, TV shows, and sports programming in the future. As part of a settlement agreement, the name of the company and owner were not released.

The devices were sold on average for AUS $400, which included a year’s unauthorised subscription to pirated versions of video-on-demand movies, as well as live sports channels, and premium TV channels from Europe, India, the United States, and South East Asia.

Zoe Thorogood, a spokesperson for ACE, said: “The film and television industry has made significant investments to provide audiences with access to creative content how, where, and when they want it. ACE and CAP members initiated this investigation as part of a comprehensive global approach to protect the legal marketplace for creative content, reduce online piracy, and bolster a creative economy that supports millions of workers. This latest action was part of a series of global actions to address the growth of illegal and unsafe piracy devices and apps.”

Neil Gane, General Manager of the CASBAA Coalition Against Piracy (CAP), said: “These little black boxes are now beginning to dominate the piracy ecosystem, causing significant damage to all sectors of the content industry, from producers to telecommunication platforms. They also pose a risk to consumers who face a well-documented increase in exposure to malware. The surge in availability of these illicit streaming devices is an international issue that requires a coordinated effort between industry and government. This will be the first of many disruption and enforcement initiatives on which CAP, ACE, and other industry associations will be collaborating together.”

The recently launched Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) includes leading video content creators and distributors in Asia including: beIN Asia Pacific, CASBAA, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Fox Networks Group, HBO Asia, NBCUniversal, Premier League, Turner Asia-Pacific, A&E Networks, Astro, BBC Worldwide, Cignal TV, Media Partners Asia, National Basketball Association, PCCW Media, Sony Pictures Television Networks Asia, True Visions, TV5MONDE, TVB, and Viacom International Media Networks.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is a global coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal market and reducing online piracy. The worldwide members of ACE are Amazon, AMC Networks, BBC Worldwide, Bell Canada and Bell Media, Canal+ Group, CBS Corporation, Constantin Film, Foxtel, Grupo Globo, HBO, Hulu, Lionsgate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Millennium Media, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Pictures, SF Studios, Sky, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Star India, Studio Babelsberg, STX Entertainment, Telemundo, Televisa, Twentieth Century Fox, Univision Communications Inc., Village Roadshow, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

-ends-

About CASBAA

Established in 1991, CASBAA is the association for digital multichannel TV, content, platforms, advertising and video delivery across a variety of geographic markets throughout the Asia Pacific. CASBAA’s members reach over 500 million connections within a regional footprint ranging from China to Australasia, Japan to Pakistan. For more information, visit www.casbaa.com.

Media Contacts

For media contacts and additional background contact:

CASBAA/CAP
Kay Bayliss
+852 3929 1724
kay@casbaa.com

ACE
Zoe Thorogood
UK: +44 7855 828 391
US: +1 202 659 7902
zoe@alliance4creativity.com

AWS Announces Family of Five AWS Media Services for Complete Video Workflows

AWS Elemental Media Services enable video providers to accelerate innovation, improve reliability, increase scale, monetize their offerings, and reduce total cost of ownership for processing live and on-demand video content in the cloud

BT, Pac-12 Networks, Amazon Prime Video, Fox Sports Australia, fuboTV, Nine, Spuul, M2A Media, Cinépolis, and IMAGICA are among the major providers relying on AWS Elemental Media Services to enhance consumers’ video experience

SEATTLE – Nov. 27, 2017 – Today at AWS re:Invent, Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), announced five AWS Elemental Media Services, an integrated suite of services that make it easy for video providers of all kinds to create reliable, flexible, and scalable video offerings in the cloud. Based on AWS Elemental video solutions, these five new cloud services let customers build end-to-end workflows for both live and on-demand video with the professional features, image quality, and reliability needed to deliver premium video experiences to viewers across a multitude of devices. With just a few clicks in the AWS Management Console, customers can build customized video applications and pay only for the technology resources they use, without upfront capital investment. To get started with AWS Elemental Media Services, visit: https://aws.amazon.com/media-services.

Whether for entertainment, sports, news, education, community engagement, or corporate alignment, consumers today expect great video experiences delivered securely and reliably to any device including tablets, smart phones, connected TVs, or set-top boxes. Previously, to meet these high expectations, video providers had to procure very expensive, specialized broadcast equipment that was inflexible, slow to adapt to new device platforms, hard to scale to meet times of peak demand, and often lacked support for the latest video formats, resolutions, and streaming techniques. What’s more, if the video provider wanted to adopt new revenue-generating business models, such as personalized advertising to a global customer base, they needed to spend considerable time and effort making that work seamlessly across all devices.

AWS Elemental Media Services eliminate the need to procure expensive equipment for video data centers. These services automate what were previously complex, labor-intensive processes that manage on-going video operations. And, AWS Elemental Media Services let video providers avoid wasted infrastructure due to on-going technology obsolescence. With AWS Elemental Media Services, which combine the proven broadcast-quality video solutions from AWS Elemental with the security, durability, availability, and scalability of AWS, video providers can focus on making great content that is delivered via the cloud instead of building and maintaining on-premises video infrastructure. Projects that once took months or years—such as standing up 24×7 live broadcast channels, converting a library of video-on-demand (VOD) assets for distribution, or streaming a high-profile live event—can now be completed in a fraction of the time with AWS Elemental Media Services. Additionally, by using AWS Elemental Media Services, video providers can also incorporate personalized advertisements into streaming video using advanced techniques to generate additional revenues with their video content.

“For the better part of six decades, professional-grade video workflows were limited to a few major industry players who could afford to build and maintain customized infrastructure that would be updated only once or twice each decade,” said Alex Dunlap, General Manager at AWS Elemental. “These companies spent a great deal of time, money, and focus operating infrastructure with resources that could have been better spent creating great content and viewer experiences. We built AWS Elemental Media Services to let customers focus on delivering top-quality video reliably to any device, everywhere, without the undifferentiated heavy lifting of managing infrastructure. This not only helps traditional video providers innovate faster, but it also opens up new opportunities for startups, government agencies, schools, and multinational enterprises that, before today, had limited access to premium-quality video technology.”

AWS Elemental Media Services include the following individual services:

• AWS Elemental MediaConvert: Format and compress video-on-demand content for delivery to virtually any playback device, with high-quality video transcoding and broadcast-level features.
• AWS Elemental MediaLive: Encode broadcast-grade live video for televisions or connected devices. Quickly stand up broadcast channels or live events and deliver them reliably to your viewers.
• AWS Elemental MediaPackage: Prepare and protect live video streams for delivery to Internet devices with rich playback experience features such as start-over TV.
• AWS Elemental MediaStore: Deliver video from high-performance storage optimized for media.
• AWS Elemental MediaTailor: Insert targeted advertising into your video without sacrificing quality to increase viewer engagement and boost revenues.

Customers involved in the extensive private preview of AWS Elemental Media Services provided the following feedback on the services.

BT is one of the world’s leading communications services companies, serving customers in the UK and more than 170 countries. To power its next-generation video headend infrastructure which delivers video both to Internet-connected devices and traditional broadcast set-top boxes, BT is looking to leverage AWS. “Rationalizing our on-premises converged headend and extending that infrastructure widely across the BT enterprise requires an all-in shift to the cloud,” said Ian Parr, Director TV and Broadband Infrastructure for BT. “AWS Elemental has played a key role in our TV and Sport platform evolution over the past few years. The new AWS Elemental Media Services are a natural extension of media workflows to the cloud. The ease of use of these AWS console-based services for end-to-end workflows will provide a level of flexibility and efficiency that will be a game changer for our industry while providing a flexible option that can coexist with legacy on-premises live and on-demand infrastructures deployments.”

Every year, Pac-12 Networks offers live coverage of 850 sporting events, making it one of the top live sports producers in the United States. “To keep our focus on the core mission of delivering the best experience with viewership of our live broadcasts and events, and to stay ahead of technology at a fraction of the traditional cost, we are excited to turn to the cloud with AWS,” said Mark Kramer, Vice President, Engineering & Technology for Pac-12 Networks. “We look forward to launching our TV Everywhere offering of all seven Pac-12 Networks linear channels, as well as the hundreds of live event streams produced by our schools through Pac-12 Plus, on the AWS Elemental MediaStore service in the coming months. AWS offers end-to-end ingest-to-delivery workflow support, and we plan to leverage these latest services to provide live and on-demand Pac-12 networks content for millions of viewers.”

Amazon Prime Video is streaming 11 NFL games this season—including 10 Thursday Night Football match-ups and a special Christmas Day game—to tens of millions of customers in more than 200 countries and territories. The live coverage is available across more than 600 devices, from living room devices like smart TVs and Amazon Fire TVs to Amazon Prime Video mobile apps on iOS and Android, Fire Tablets, and the web. “Offering live sports like NFL games globally, over-the-top on a large number of devices is complex, and we built our end-to-end architecture in the cloud,” said BA Winston, Global Head of Video Playback and Delivery for Amazon Video. “We used the AWS Elemental MediaTailor service, which allows us to deliver targeted ads that are seamlessly inserted into the main content, for a great viewer experience. Our end-to-end architecture was engineered for low latency to minimize time-behind-live performance, and we implemented user-centric features like viewer-selectable audio tracks. I am confident that AWS Elemental Media Services are the path to use the cloud for live streaming at scale.”

FOX SPORTS Australia Pty Limited (FOX SPORTS) is Australia’s leading producer of sports coverage and is home to Australia’s favorite subscription television sports channels as well as Australia’s number one multi-sports website and app. “Committed to improving the viewing experience on any device for fans across Australia, FOX SPORTS is at the vanguard of sports broadcast innovation,” said Alastair Robertson, Chief Technology Officer for FOX SPORTS Australia. “Delivering live sport on this scale to our subscribers requires scale, so we’re looking to adopt the AWS Cloud and to leverage the end-to-end live event and content monetization workflows only available in the cloud through AWS Elemental Media Services.”

fuboTV, the live streaming TV service that offers more than 30,000 sports events per year, has expanded its base package to include more than 65 channels including more channels that carry sports programming. Looking to monetize content through personalized ad insertion, fuboTV is using AWS Elemental Media Services to enable its live offering. “Timely content and a strong user experience are central to our business. Our growth requires continuous innovation, including launching new channels, user interface functionality, and upgraded apps,” said Sung Ho Choi, Co-Founder of fuboTV. “AWS Elemental Media Services not only help us with these launches, but let us quickly test new monetization strategies, allowing us to focus our resources on creating the best sports streaming service in the market.”

Nine is a broadcast and video content business across entertainment, news, sports and lifestyle programming in Australia. Nine trialed the new AWS Elemental Media Services, including AWS Elemental MediaLive and AWS Elemental MediaPackage, to expand its live streaming video offerings through the main 9News website. “In our preview of the new AWS Elemental Media Services, we have been impressed by the speed of setup of an AWS Elemental MediaLive encoding, AWS Elemental MediaPackage and Amazon CloudFront CDN workflow to rapidly start delivering a live streaming service in minutes,” said Mat Yelavich, Nine’s Chief Information Officer. “We see plenty of opportunity to mature and expand our live streaming capabilities with AWS Elemental Media Services.”

Singapore based Spuul is one of the leading VOD service providers across the globe, with the service being consumed across a number of platforms. To support its live streaming service, including 150 linear TV channels for viewers in Australia and New Zealand as well as for future global expansion, Spuul is turning to AWS Elemental Media Services. “We must overcome immense geographic distances and time zone differences to provide the best possible viewer experiences. We are looking to AWS Elemental MediaLive to give us tremendous scale, elasticity, and flexibility within our video processing and delivery infrastructure and AWS Elemental MediaPackage to support functionalities such as channel delay, seven-day catch-up, and start-over,” said S Mohan, Co-Founder & CEO, Spuul.

M2A Media, a leader in cloud media services, offers innovative live streaming and live capture solutions to content publishers worldwide. “Running live event workflows in the cloud allows us to deliver the flexibility, reliability and scale our customers demand,” said Marcus Box, Chief Technology Officer for M2A Media. “AWS Elemental offers a best in market transcode solution and AWS Elemental Cloud extends this with the robustness and scale of AWS. The new AWS Elemental Media Services are a great evolution of the product suite that will enable us to build live workflows for both subscription and ad-supported publishers. We’re really excited about the potential of these new products and what they can offer our live event publishers.”

As one of the largest global cinema operators with nearly 850,000 seats across 13 countries, Cinépolis is expanding its theatrical experience with the addition of multi-platform content delivery and an OTT service known as Cinépolis KLIC. “The AWS Elemental Media Services were a perfect fit for us as they cover many of the requirements we had in order to achieve the resilience and quality required for our live events and on-demand services,” said Marco de la Cruz, Sub-Director, Cinépolis KLIC. “AWS Elemental MediaLive and AWS Elemental MediaConvert could be considered our ‘Cloud 2.0’ with their serverless architecture and embedded redundancy per event. Working with AWS Elemental Media Services has enabled us to free up time to build up redundant workflows quickly and easily as well as to focus on innovating new services and enhancing our existing offers.”

IMAGICA Corporation is a Japanese post-production company for movies, television programs and commercials. “Now, with AWS Elemental MediaConvert, we can confidently commit to customers’ schedules and deliver content in the multiple formats at high quality at low cost while meeting deadlines. For example, AWS Elemental MediaConvert recently transcoded 600 hours of content in only six hours at high video quality. This kind of performance lets us enhance our customers’ production value,” said Takaaki Kudo, Manager R&D Group Technology Administration Dept. for IMAGICA.

AWS Elemental Media Services integrate seamlessly with other AWS services, allowing customers to augment their video workflows with offerings such as AWS Direct Connect and AWS Snowball for content ingestion; Amazon CloudFront for content delivery; Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring; and Amazon Rekognition for artificial intelligence.

About Amazon Web Services

For 11 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform AWS offers over 90 fully featured services for compute, storage, networking, database, analytics, application services, deployment, management, developer, mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), security, hybrid, and enterprise applications, from 44 Availability Zones (AZs) across 16 geographic regions in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the UK. AWS services are trusted by millions of active customers around the world — including the fastest growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies — to power their infrastructure, make them more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit https://aws.amazon.com.

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

Irdeto Extends Security Partnership with Foxtel

Irdeto picked to secure Foxtel’s set-top boxes and its Foxtel Now streaming service, expanding its long-term relationship to securely distribute premium content across any device

AMSTERDAM – 14 November 2017 – Irdeto, the world leader in digital platform security, has extended its long-standing security partnership with Foxtel, Australia’s leading pay TV operator. With Irdeto, Foxtel has a reliable and stable security partner that will ensure premium content is securely delivered across any device, minimizing revenue leakage from all forms of piracy.

The company announced that Irdeto Cloaked CA will now securely deliver content through Foxtel’s latest fleet of set-top boxes (STBs). In addition, Irdeto also secures the distribution of content across devices supported by Foxtel’s streaming service, Foxtel Now. This deal further extends Foxtel’s long-standing security relationship with Irdeto, which also includes a robust content distribution technology strategy.

“Foxtel is committed to offering our customers a premium entertainment experience,” said Mike Ivanchenko, Group Director, Product Design ＆ Development, Foxtel. “Our innovative streaming services and set-top boxes further differentiate our offerings by providing our subscribers with highly advanced features, such as program start-over and content discovery along with access to the best live sports, new movies, new shows and complete seasons, live and on demand. Our security partnership with Irdeto enables us to securely deliver all of this premium content to our cable and satellite subscribers, allowing us to focus on growing our business.”

With consumers relying on multiple sources to consume content, innovation is key to increase market share. With its Foxtel Now streaming service and fleet of advanced STBs, Foxtel is providing its subscribers with the high-quality experience they desire. Irdeto Cloaked CA, the mostly widely deployed software CA in pay TV, will enable Foxtel to deliver an improved customer experience through faster channel change times, increased security, reduced logistical costs and reduced costs of satellite bandwidth. By expanding upon Foxtel’s security partnership with Irdeto, the company is able to focus on continuing to innovate its offerings with the peace-of-mind that its content is protected.

“Operators are facing more challenges than ever as they manage new technology implementations, combat piracy and address consumer demand for high-quality, multiscreen experiences,” said Doug Lowther, CEO, Irdeto. “Irdeto’s unique, 360 security strategy allows us to protect all assets across the content value chain. As Foxtel’s security partner, we continuously evolve content protection strategies to stay one step ahead of new threats, allowing Foxtel to securely develop new business models to address consumer demand.”

###

About Irdeto
Irdeto is the world leader in digital platform security, protecting platforms and applications for media & entertainment, automotive and IoT connected industries. Our solutions and services enable customers to protect their revenue, create new offerings and fight cybercrime. With nearly 50 years of expertise in security, Irdeto’s software security technology and cyber services protect over 5 billion devices and applications for some of the world’s best-known brands. Our unique heritage as a subsidiary of multinational media group Naspers (JSE: NPN) means that we are a well-established and reliable partner to help build a more secure future. Please visit Irdeto at www.irdeto.com.

For further information, please contact:

Stephen Russell
Global Manager, Public Relations, Irdeto
Mobile: +1 774 273 3890
Email: Stephen.Russell@irdeto.com

Crystal Kung
Senior Account Manager, WE Communications
P: +65 6303 8472
Email: ckung@we-worldwide.com

CELESTIAL PICTURES EXPRESSES DEEPEST CONDOLENCES ON THE PASSING OF LADY MONA FONG-SHAW

[23 November 2017 – Hong Kong] Celestial Pictures expresses our deepest condolences on the passing of Lady Mona Fong-Shaw on 22 November 2017, a leading Hong Kong film and television producer.

Celestial Pictures owns the Celestial Shaw Library, which consists of 760 well-known and award-winning Chinese-language feature films. Of this precious gem, there are over 200 notable films, ranging from martial arts to musical drama, with Lady Mona Fong-Shaw credited either as executive producer or producer. To name a few are THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS, THE AVENGING EAGLE, HEX, THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN, THE EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER, DIRTY HO, CRIPPLED AVENGERS, MAD MONKEY KUNG FU, THE BLUE AND THE BLACK and THE DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER.

“We share the grief with the family of Lady Mona-Fong Shaw. We will honor the legacies of Sir Run Run Shaw and Lady Mona Fong-Shaw through extending the intellectual property of the Celestial Shaw Library across entertainment media formats internationally featuring Chinese-language and English-language content offerings on traditional and new media,” commented Kristen Tong, Chief Operating Officer of Celestial Pictures.

Sir Run Run Shaw and Lady Mona Fong-Shaw are both legends of Asian film and television history and will always be remembered by all of us.

Media Enquiries：
Stella Li
Madison Communications
(852) 2562-3631
stella@madison.asia

Josephine Ng
Celestial Pictures
(852) 2212-6985
josephine.ng@celestialpictures.com

ABOUT CELESTIAL PICTURES LIMITED

Celestial Pictures Limited (Celestial Pictures) is a diversified entertainment company bringing the best in Asian entertainment to the world. The company focuses on film and television content origination, aggregation and worldwide distribution.

Celestial Pictures owns the Celestial Shaw Library, the world’s largest Chinese film collection, with 760 Chinese-language feature films originally released over a fifty year period. The library has inspired countless filmmakers with its vast pool of classics including THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS, HEX, THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN, ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN, KING BOXER and THE FLYING GUILLOTINE. These award-winning films have been digitally restored frame-by-frame for global distribution. The company has also been active in developing new content based on the Celestial Shaw Library intellectual property.

Celestial Pictures has a substantial investment in Celestial Tiger Entertainment (CTE), a venture with Saban Capital Group and Lionsgate. It operates branded pay television channels and produces and distributes content for Asian audiences. CTE’s channel bouquet includes CELESTIAL MOVIES, CELESTIAL CLASSIC MOVIES, CELESTIAL MOVIES PINOY, cHK, MIAO MI, KIX, KIX 360, THRILL and THRILL 360, with a footprint that spans Asia and Australia.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Celestial Pictures is owned by Astro Overseas Limited, a leading investment holding company that operates in media and entertainment businesses across India, China, Hong Kong, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Fijian Government selects EUTELSAT 172B for providing universal television access

Paris, Suva, 23 November 2017 – Walesi, the Fijian Government’s Digital Television infrastructure management company, has signed a multi-year agreement with Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) that will for the first time expand free-to-air television throughout Fiji. The agreement covers C-band capacity on the EUTELSAT 172B satellite to complement terrestrial coverage of the Walesi digital television platform.

Eutelsat’s new, all-electric satellite, now in full commercial service, will allow Walesi to provide digital free-to-air television via a Direct-to-Home (DTH) platform that will serve even the most remote, deep rural, and maritime areas of Fiji located beyond range of terrestrial networks. The platform will initially provide access to six digital free-to-air channels – with capacity to further expand – that will be accessible via a set-top box. Walesi will announce details regarding the DTH roll-out and Government-subsidised boxes in the coming weeks.

“This universal satellite coverage will be transformational for Fiji in three ways: it will provide better access to information to all Fijians, especially those in remote, deep rural, and maritime communities; it will further Fiji’s standing as an international telecommunications hub for the entire Pacific region; and it will fortify the climate resilience of our infrastructure,” said Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Fijian Attorney-General and Minister for Communications. “This is just the beginning; going forward, our partnership with Eutelsat will allow the Government to fulfil our vision of providing video, data, and voice access to every community in Fiji.”

Michel Azibert, Eutelsat’s Chief Commercial and Development Officer, added: “This agreement reflects not only the value of our new EUTELSAT 172B satellite in complex geographies such as Fiji, but also the immediate impact of satellite broadcasting for nationwide coverage of digital TV. We are delighted to be working with Walesi to promote access to free-to-air television for all and to be part of the effort to bridge the digital divide.”

About Walesi
Walesi is a 100% government owned digital television infrastructure management company. Tasked with providing a nationwide digital television platform and associated infrastructure, Walesi is installing over 17 major communications and broadcast sites around Fiji which will be managed on a neutral host model. These major sites will be complemented by micro sites in remote and maritime regions that will be supported by bidirectional satellite capacity to expand data, video, and voice connectivity to previously unserved communities.

About Eutelsat Communications
Founded in 1977, Eutelsat Communications is one of the world’s leading satellite operators. With a global fleet of satellites and associated ground infrastructure, Eutelsat enables clients across Video, Data, Government, Fixed and Mobile Broadband markets to communicate effectively to their customers, irrespective of their location. Over 6,700 television channels operated by leading media groups are broadcast by Eutelsat to one billion viewers equipped for DTH reception or connected to terrestrial networks. Headquartered in Paris, with offices and teleports around the globe, Eutelsat assembles 1,000 men and women from 32 countries who are dedicated to delivering the highest quality of service.

Eutelsat Communications is listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ticker: ETL).

For more about Eutelsat go to www.eutelsat.com

Press
Vanessa O’Connor Tel: + 33 1 53 98 37 91 voconnor@eutelsat.com
Marie-Sophie Ecuer Tel: + 33 1 53 98 37 91 mecuer@eutelsat.com

Investors and analysts
Joanna Darlington Tel. : +33 1 53 98 35 30 jdarlington@eutelsat.com
Cédric Pugni Tel. : +33 1 53 98 35 30 cpugni@eutelsat.com

Eutelsat all-electric EUTELSAT 172B satellite set to transform connectivity landscape in Asia-Pacific

Photo credit : Airbus Defence and Space

New satellite goes live at 172° East, delivering enhanced capacity and new HTS payload for in-flight connectivity

Paris, 21 November 2017 – Eutelsat Communications’ (Euronext Paris: ETL) all-electric EUTELSAT 172B satellite that went into full commercial service this morning is now offering greatly enhanced flexibility, power and connectivity for users in a vast region stretching from the West coast of the Americas to Asia, Oceania and across the Pacific.

The transfer of services to EUTELSAT 172B from EUTELSAT 172A was completed seamlessly in a series of overnight manoeuvres, releasing EUTELSAT 172A for an alternative orbital position to serve customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Launched in June this year, EUTELSAT 172B sets a new benchmark as the fastest satellite to reach geostationary orbit using electric propulsion (in only four months) and the first optimised for in-flight connectivity across the Pacific. Its innovative High Throughput payload, consisting of 11 spotbeams, will transform efficiency by enabling power to be dynamically allocated as aircraft fly high traffic routes in the Asia Pacific region. This step change will allow Panasonic, the major client of the HTS payload, to better meet passenger demand and cost-effectively ensure consistently high levels of service to airlines.

In addition to the HTS payload, EUTELSAT 172B significantly increases regular bandwidth at the 172° East position, with C-band capacity as well as flexible Ku-band capacity spread across five interconnecting Widebeam service areas. Beyond maritime, video, enterprise, cellular backhaul and government services, the Ku-band capacity will serve as an overlay to economically deliver live television to passengers in flight.

Rodolphe Belmer, Eutelsat CEO, said: “As EUTELSAT 172B begins commercial activity that will stretch into the 2030s, this is a key moment to thank the men and women at Eutelsat and our colleagues at Airbus for collaborating passionately on a programme that sets a new industry standard. In addition to taking our 172° East location to a new level of performance for clients in the Asia-Pacific, EUTELSAT 172B further validates the value of electric propulsion for high-capacity satellites that are core to providing cost-competitive services in the telecoms marketplace.”

Eutelsat Communications is listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ticker: ETL).
For more about Eutelsat go to www.eutelsat.com

Press
Vanessa O’Connor Tel: + 33 1 53 98 37 91 voconnor@eutelsat.com
Marie-Sophie Ecuer Tel: + 33 1 53 98 37 91 mecuer@eutelsat.com

Investors and analysts
Joanna Darlington Tel: +33 1 53 98 35 30 jdarlington@eutelsat.com
Cédric Pugni Tel: +33 1 53 98 35 30 cpugni@eutelsat.com

Star Plus Celebrates Ideas with TED Talks India Nayi Soch

The inspiring journey begins from 10th Dec every Sunday at 7pm on Star Plus & Hotstar

Mumbai November 19, 2017: Star India’s flagship channel Star Plus and the global digital platform for ideas – TED, come together to India to create a unique collaboration never seen before on Television. A limited edition series Ted Talks India Nayi Soch, launching December 10 will span across 7 Sundays, is all set to inspire the nation to embrace and celebrate ideas.

Social conditioning, rote learning and risk aversion are the culprits that stop us from letting our ideas come to life, which sometimes comes in the way of us realising our vision to be an innovation powerhouse.

This cultural insight is at the heart of the campaign of Ted Talks India Nayi Soch, the first look went live on November 18, 2017. Two films ‘Gudiya’ and ‘Bobby Ka Idea‘ focus on how ideas that could have potentially provided a way out of the drudgery of life are systematically discouraged and killed. #DontKillIdeas is the central idea on which the first look of the marketing campaign is based.

Gayatri Yadav, President, Consumer Strategy and Innovation, Star India says, “It’s an important and pertinent message from the brand that encourages new thinking (Nayi Soch), about how a seemingly ordinary idea comes with the immense power to transform lives.”

Narayan Sundararaman, Business Head, Star Plus notes, “Ideas are often dismissed as figment of people’s imagination. Yet, every great achievement, discovery or invention starts with an idea. It’s time we put a premium on ideas. All of us at some point in time or the other have been victims of our ideas being killed or have been responsible for killing ideas. These simple slice of life films bring out this point vividly and with a disarming charm. The films have been conceptualized by the creative agency Leo Burnett India and directed by Nitesh Tiwari of ‘Dangal’ fame”.

The inspiring journey begins from 10th December Sunday at 7pm on Star Plus & Hotstar #DontKillIdeas

Ted Talk India Nayi Soch – Drone Promo and Roti Maker Promo – Download link –
https://we.tl/dGTDbBjpUq

About Star India:

Star India has defined the Indian media landscape since 1991 and today is one of the country’s leading media conglomerates, reaching approximately 700+ million viewers a month across India and more than 100 other countries. Star generates 30,000+ hours of content every year and broadcasts 60+ channels in 8 different languages, reaching 9 out of 10 C&S TV homes in India.

The network’s entertainment channel portfolio includes Star Gold, Channel V, Star World, Star World Premiere HD, Star Movies, Star Movies Select HD, Star Utsav, Star Utsav Movies, Star Bharat, Movies OK and Star Plus, India’s No. 1 Hindi General Entertainment Channel. It has a leading presence in regional broadcasting as well, through a bouquet of channels which include Star Jalsha, Jalsha Movies, Star Pravah, Maa channels and affiliate channels Asianet, Asianet Plus, Asianet Movies, Suvarna, Suvarna Plus and Vijay. It is also present in the Indian movie production and distribution space through Fox Star Studios, an affiliate joint venture company.

Star India is making quantum leaps in transforming sports in the country by leveraging the group’s strengths in superior content and audience engagement. Star’s sports business has grown rapidly to 12 channel properties (Star Sports 1, 2, Star Sports Select 1, Star Sports Select 2, Star Sports Hindi 1; Star Sports HD1, HD2, Star Sports Select 1 HD, Star Sports Select 2 HD, Star Sports Hindi 1 HD; India’s first Tamil Sports channel Star Sports Tamil 1 and India’s first private FTA sports channel Star Sports First), making it the leading sports network in the country.

Star is set to drive the agenda on digital content consumption in the country with Hotstar, Star’s revolutionary digital platform that brings your favourite TV shows, movies and sports in one destination. Star India is a fully owned subsidiary of 21st Century Fox.

WATCH THE ENTIRE FOUR-PART HBO ASIA ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY SERIES THE TALWARS: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS FOR FREE ON HBO ASIA’S WEBSITE

SINGAPORE, NOVEMBER 20, 2017 – From December 18, the entire four-part HBO Asia Original Documentary series THE TALWARS: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS will be available for free to all viewers across Asia*, both subscribers and non-subscribers alike, for a week on www.hboasia.com.

HBO Asia’s first original documentary about the double murder of a teenage girl and her family’s household servant in Noida, India, examines one of India’s biggest murder mysteries that shook the nation and captured worldwide attention. THE TALWARS: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS premieres on Sunday, November 26 at 9pm (SIN) exclusively on HBO. Parts 2, 3 and 4 will debut on subsequent Sundays at the same time. The documentary will be streaming on HBO GO and will also available on HBO On Demand.

*Available in 18 territories across Asia including Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

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