Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Feb 13th. 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 |
Love it or loathe, there’s no denying that YouTube has been a serious game-changer. But has it, as the Telegraph claims, actually changed the world? Certainly, if you can speak Irish, you might agree. But it’s also worth remembering how the whole YouTube game began… the first video ever posted was something about elephants. Find out more with Ajay Vidyasagar, Regional Director- APAC, You Tube Partnerships, Google at the CASBAA OTT Summit. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
The advertising industry in the USA announced a new Brand Integrity Program Against Piracy. The initiative is sponsored by the 4As, Association of National Advertisers, and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). It aims to give advertisers and agencies tools to help them prevent their ads popping up on disreputable websites – including those promoting copyright piracy. The leader of the effort told the press the problems are “Fraud, malware and piracy—marketers are really paying attention to this stuff now, and they’re hopping mad”. The new initiative gets away from constant haggling over whether a website is infringing copyright – problem websites will just be described as At Risk Entities (AREs). “Advertisers don’t really care if (a site) meets the specific legal standard or not. They just don’t want their ads on sites that are not credible or legitimate.” |
Mark LayVice President, Singapore |
Some youngsters I talk with, who are working in new media startups with no sales and lots of losses, love to explain to me how “new media” is on the cusp of putting traditional broadcasters, pay-TV operators and pay-TV channels out of business. But according to a recent Horowitz Research report, the survey indicates that demand for OTT, SVOD is an opportunity not threat for pay-TV. “Perhaps one of the most stand-out stats was that the overwhelming majority of multiplatform viewers who have both a multichannel service and OTT SVOD services are not ready to give up easy access to broadcast programming, even when presented with the option of adding standalone, à la carte SVOD services like the new services offered by HBO, Showtime and CBS.” |
Kevin JenningsProgramme Director |
AP says it has seen a huge increase in demand for its video hub servicemainly growing demand by media outlets since its launch in 2012. The increase is hardly a surprise, confirming that streamed live content drives more traffic to news websites, and significantly increases the time people spend on the site. |
Anjan MitraExecutive Director, India
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India’s Department of Telecommunications, piloting a renewed thrust for a legislation for the converged era and services, is going to the Prime Minister’s Office with the proposal. A Communications Convergence Bill is a step in the right direction, indeed, that would help in snipping red tape. But the big question is: Can this BJP-led coalition in New Delhi push through such a radical legislation in Parliament? Especially as it doesn’t have adequate number of MPs in the Upper House and where Opposition political parties have been blocking major proposed reforms and legislations. Last time India introduced such a Bill in Parliament in the early part of 2000 decade, the proposed legislation got snowed down under over 70 objections from a parliamentary committee…and then forgotten. |
Jane BuckthoughtAdvertising Consultant |
The censorship-of-broadcast-content debate continues to rage in India: A commentator notes that “internet remains the elephant in the room no one wants to address,” and forecasts “as technology permeates our vast country, the prevailing confusion will continue to multiply. We may be in for a lot more randomness in the coming months and years.” |
Michael SteelRegulatory Assistant |
Two of the key players in Vietnam’s media industry are planning for a merger. Troubled VTC, which has fallen on hard times after starting digital TV broadcasting in Vietnam way back in 2004 (with content they didn’t have rights to, at that time), is going to be merged into state-owned radio and TV broadcaster VoV to create a media group with four pillars: print media, television, radio and internet publications. The merger has been approved by the Prime Minister but it will take a few years to implement. VoV seems to be on a roll… they also recently won rights to develop a new National Assembly TV channel. |
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
Remember the Superbowl? Turns out, we missed something… NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announcing the league is planning to stream a (singular) game over-the-top. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
For this week at least, the pirates have been taking hits and a number of their ships are sinking.
First, there’s news from Switzerland that the venerable (well, it’s 12 years old) RapidShare file sharing site is going under. Then, it seems that The Pirate Bay’s ability to plaster that name on whatever website they cook up in Sweden might be at risk, as aprosecutor has asked the courts to transfer their internet domain names to the Swedish government, so they cannot be misused. The prosecutor said “A domain name is an aid for a site. When a site is used for criminal activities a domain is aiding crime.” Meanwhile, a really juicy item has filtered out of the USA, where one of the MegaUpload co-defendants seems to have flown from Europe to the USA for the purpose of surrendering to the FBI. The usual pirate forums are all a-twitter (no pun intended) with rumors that he’s copped a plea deal and will be testifying against Kim Dotcom and the others. Ooo! Ooo! And finally, a tantalizing item from China reports that the authorities there have started withholding licenses for “black box” Android-based streaming media players, if the boxes can be easily modified with third-party pirate-access apps. (Legitimate players like Roku and Apple TV already take steps to prevent 3rd-party piracy.) That’s really good news… but it seems the Chinese rules may not be applied to exported boxes, so unrestrained piracy will continue – everyplace except in China! Sounds like a digital version of a “beggar-thy-neighbor” policy. |
Mark LayVice President, Singapore |
It’s a sad day for anyone who has enjoyed watching Jon Stewart mocking news organizations as he will be leaving The Daily Show after being there since the last millennium. The Guardian has a great piece on Jon Stewart’s 10 best moments. And still on programming, it looks like Breaking Bad fans have tuned into the spinoff Better Call Saul in droves, setting a cable record. VERY Nice rating on IMDB too. Congrats AMC. |
Kevin JenningsProgramme Director |
Reliance customers in six Indian states (Tamil Nadu, Mahararashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, and Telangana) can now access dozens of services ranging from news, travel, local jobs, sports, and local government information. |
| CASBAA will be busy herding sheep during the Lunar New Year holidays so next week’s News Views will be pre-empted, but check your inbox on February 27 for the next issue of your weekly news round-up! | |