Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Apr 2nd. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!
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Christopher SlaughterCEO |
Adobe has released its U.S. Digital Video 2014 Inaugural Report, a data-rich look how users have interacted with its market-dominating authentication platform PrimeTime. Some key insights: unique TV Everywhere viewers grew by 117%, and authenticated video starts grew by 266% year on year. Definitely feels like TV Everywhere is a thing… |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
The rallying cry for Net Neutrality (whatever that means) is resounding across India’s internet, following the TRAI’s issuance of its much-awaited consultation paper on the “Regulatory Framework for OTT Services.” Framed by netizens (Indians or foreign) and the always-vigilant print media, it’s a “fight”, and it’s not about money, it’s about free speech, an issue worth “fighting” for. And of course the blogosphere is urging its millions of sheeple to send in comments, no matter how uninformed, to the TRAI.(The FCC got four million comments on the issue; I hope TRAI’s mailbox is a large one.) All of this is stoked, of course, by the advocates for the net companies who will benefit from free access to consumers. |
Mark LayVice President, Singapore |
I was having lunch with a senior person from a large programmer the other day and the topic of Youtube “not making any money” came up. This may now be the case, but if Youtube is gaining audience, building a new generation of viewers and creators and attracting advertisers it’s definitely something for which our industry needs to take notice. This report on the recent Youtube Fanfest in Mumbai gives an idea on Youtube’s effect on India. And with kids now spending six hours or more a day on screens this next generation may view TV quite differently than the last. |
Kevin JenningsProgramme Director |
Yahoo! shows it isn’t all plain sailing in the OTT online video space with people trying out the Yahoo Screen service for the first time to watch a new series of the comedy Community and the online viewing experience did not go down well. With a wicked sense of irony the article describes the programme as a “lovably dysfunctional environment where nothing ever works as promised…” |
Jane BuckthoughtAdvertising Consultant |
Global adspend is expected to grow 4.4 percent to reach $544 billion in 2015, according to ZenithOptimedia’s new Advertising Expenditure Forecasts, which finds that the fastest growing advertising category is online video. Growth is forecast to accelerate to 5.3 percent in 2016, boosted by the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and the U.S. Presidential elections. Adspend will then slow down slightly in the absence of these events, growing 4.8 percent in 2017. |
Sara MaderaDirector, Member Relations & Marketing |
Mike Weatherley spoke at last year’s CASBAA Convention when he was still IP Advisor to UK Prime Minister Cameron. He’s just stepped down from his parliamentary post, but before leaving he issued one more report, with his views on how online service providers (OSPs) can and should contribute to the battle against piracy. It’s a thoughtful exploration of the issues confronting OSPs; Weatherley advocates a further updating of UK laws on ISPs to modernize practices and introduce latest technology to preventing piracy where possible. He also makes a highly relevant point, with respect to debates over net neutrality: “I would not wish any concept of net neutrality to operate as an excuse to stop companies taking whatever responsibility for pirate content being distributed over their networks is considered appropriate.” |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
Returning to net neutrality for a minute, I have limited sympathy for Indian telcos, who have fleeced people making overseas phone calls for decades… but largely missing from the online debate is the fact that a developing country with manifestly inadequate net infrastructure has a crying need for large investments. The “neutrality” mullahs never mention that their “solution” would require all consumers to pay for these investments through much higher net access bills – so that a small number of power users (and the companies who feed them) can benefit. I chuckled this week over this CNBC debate from last month when the issue broke in the USA. Be sure to watch at 6:00 when the reporter tells the Internet CEO that “It ticks me off, when I have to pay for everybody else (using Netflix)”. Oh, btw, that CEO made a cool US$1.1 billion when his startup sold to Yahoo – of course he LOVES his company’s unpaid access to consumers! |
Kevin JenningsProgramme Director |
As CASBAA gears up for the Satellite Industry Forum on June 1st in Singapore, Bangladeshi authorities have announced June 2nd as the date for an international tender for a geosynchronous satellite system for the provision of communications and broadcasting services. Not only is this of interest to the satellite community but further down the line there are ramifications for broadcasters and possibly a slew of new channels. The satellite is supposed to have 14 C-band transponders – which are presumably in the “standard” C-band, as the Bangladeshi authorities gave away the extended C-band to telcos a couple of years ago, leading to huge interference problems for the country’s cable industry. |
Jane BuckthoughtAdvertising Consultant |
A recent report from Nielsen on the use of electronic devices and social media in the region has found that that most people still prefer larger screen sizes even though media habits are undergoing the ‘most fundamental change since the introduction of TV’ as more and more people embrace the idea of ‘always-on’ media. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
In Indonesia, plans for digitization of terrestrial broadcasting have been thrown into doubt; the State Administrative Court a month ago quashed the government’s arrangements for DTT licensing, which were said to unfairly favor the existing owners of broadcasting companies. For now, there’s massive uncertainty, as the government plans to appeal. Further delays seem likely and it’s going to be harder and harder for Indonesia to meet the ASEAN target of full digitization by 2020. |
Kevin JenningsProgramme Director |
The arrival of Netflix in Australia is being blamed for a general onlineslowdown in internet speed for some customers. iiNet has signed an unmetered deal with Netflix, meaning time spent viewing the US streaming giant isn’t included in monthly data allowances which leads consumers to unusually high consumption (for Australia, where data caps are common). Netflix viewing accounted for 15 per cent of iiNets total consumer traffic since the service launched last week. This resulted in a very Aussie blame game, with consumers blaming iiNet, iiNet blaming Telstra, and Telstra pointing out that “iiNet is responsible for the end-to-end management of their network and iiNet customers need to contact them if they are experiencing problems.” Telstra has an unmetered deal with Foxtel’s Presto service, and that doesn’t seem to have led to complaints. |
Jane BuckthoughtAdvertising Consultant |
Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report highlights the growing pervasiveness of video across the whole online content world, including news, advertising and social media, and not just traditional broadcast TV. This means that more long form content is being consumed on smartphones and tablets and implies this trend is likely to continue through to 2020. |
| Some additional links you might be interested in: |
Member News:
- BBC World News now in HD across Europe via Astra 19.2e
- Conax establishes Beijing test center; new regional offering for Asia Pacific set-top-box manufacturers
- Eutelsat: Successful refinancing of term loan
- FIC: Asia’s Next Top Model Premiere Tops Charts
- Irdeto and Alibaba Group Strengthen Anti-Piracy Efforts in China
- Turner brings a taste of POGO to Thailand