Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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The global entertainment and media industry will grow by 4.4% over the next five years, from US$1.7 trillion last year to US$2.1 trillion in 2020, according to PwC’s latest Global E&M Outlook issued this week. There are plenty of other takeaways, including the firm’s prediction that 2017 will be the year advertisers spend more on the Internet than TV, and that
box office receipts in China will overtake the US next year, and the report identifies five key shifts that will drive change; demography, competition, consumption, geography, and business models. But the biggest call to action is also a major challenge — media companies must innovate and reimagine the industry. |
Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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ESPN dipped their toe into eSports broadcasting a while back, Amazon went big with $1 billion purchase of Twitch and Google started their dedicated Youtube Gaming site last summer. Last month, Turner started making a big push with a combination of streaming and live airing on TBS. And just this week, Facebook is entering the eSports market by doing a deal with Blizzard Entertainment. “Users of Blizzard’s PC games such as “World of Warcraft,” “Heroes of the Storm,” “Hearthstone,” “Diablo III,” “StarCraft II” and “Overwatch” will be able to log in using their Facebook accounts and then live-stream their gaming sessions directly to their Facebook timelines. |
John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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The debates over local content quotas on OTT platforms continue. Here’s a discussion of proposals to put in local content quotas in Australia. And in Canada, the political elite insists it is necessary to regulate online media in order to protect Canadian culture…..but it seems growing numbers of Canadians don’t think that’s so important. |
Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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Taiwanese film distribution and production company CatchPlay has launched a streaming video-on-demand service in Indonesia with the country’s state-owned telecommunications giant Telkom Indonesia after rolling out the OTT service in Taiwan in March. In addition to movies produced by several Hollywood-based producers, CatchPlay has obtained licensing from local Indonesian independent distributors and movie producers. Meanwhile the indigenous Indonesian OTT platform Genflix is claiming it had 2 million viewers for the European soccer final featuring Real Madrid, at the end of May. |
John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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In India, satellite policy is clearly the subject of a tussle between advocates of continued state monopoly over Ku-band satellite services, and those advocating a more competitive market economy. The space bureaucrats maintain they are advancing the Prime Minister’s “indigenization” agenda to make stuff in India, while the other side says more openness would be better for connectivity of rural areas, and also push innovation throughout the entire economy, and not just in the state sector. |
Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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Elsewhere, AT&T and The Chernin Group are preparing to launch a subscription video bundle targeted at the younger demo. They believe that a combination of anime, video games, niche action sports and other fare off the beaten path will attract viewers who haven’t traditionally subscribed to pay TV. The new platform will be created by Ellation who runs anime video subscription service, Crunchyroll, with 800k subs. The exact structure of the programming and packaging is still unknown. And regarding the older demo, an analyst at Morgan Stanley has a plan for how Netflix can win these reluctant streamers. |
Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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In an important step forward, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory, PEMRA, has approved the process of Pakistan’s first direct-to-home (DTH) licensing. It is hoped that the process will spark the creation of a new generation of technology and services for viewers, and that it will also bring much needed investment to the media industry and generate employment. PEMRA says that it will ensure a transparent mechanism to complete the DTH process and will announce a detailed timeline. Market sources estimate that — with approval of DTH process in place — it won’t take more than 3-4 months till the completion of DTH licenses’ auction. |
Jane Buckthought
Advertising Consultant
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Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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Nielsen has released its Twitter rankings for TV shows in the US, claiming that more than a billion tweets were sent out about TV shows during the 2015-16 season. The data is presented by type of programme, including sports (The Super Bowl), series (The Walking Dead and Empire), and specials (The Grammys), with an added section on the US Presidential debates (the Democrats win by a nose: insert Donald Trump comment of your choice here). Meanwhile, depending on what numbers you use, the conclusion that “Scripted TV is Dying A Slow Death” among US network broadcasters might not be far off target. |
Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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