13 September, 2013

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Sept 13th. Curated by CASBAA’s staff, News Views carries on in the tradition of Market Watch to keep you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Christopher Slaughter CEO	It’s nice to be popular. And in case you needed more reinforcement, television is as popular as ever with pretty much everybody… but measuring that popularity has become more difficult than ever. A recent New York Times article on cultural trends reinforces TV’s position as the standard-bearer for pop culture, but also points out that “…the old models have more or less gone kablooey.”On a side note, although I thought it was a great article, it hasn’t made it onto the list of the Times’ most popular articles online; not among those being blogged about, forwarded by email, or even simply viewed. Irony abounds.
Jill Grinda Executive Vice President	Netflix continues to flex its muscles across the pond! In a move that sees a major OTT service available for the first time on an established pay-TV platform, UK cable MSO Virgin Media has struck an agreement with Netflix that will see the service feature on the operator’s platform.
John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	India’s market is huge and getting huger. In India for the CII “Big Picture” conference this week, I was struck by some numbers recently cited by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation on the size of India’s pay-TV market. Meanwhile, PwC used the conference to unveil their latest estimates for growth in the Indian media market.
Jill Grinda Executive Vice President	Has graduated response struck out as a solution to online piracy? A research paper from an Australian academic has concluded that ‘three strikes’ or graduated response laws designed to reduce Internet-based copyright infringement are by and large ineffective and do not direct users towards legitimate sources of content.
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	Twitter is flying high after their acquisition of Trendrr and MoPub that will help networks and agencies track TV engagement across social platforms, understand the data, and identify quality messages in real time and respond accordingly. They may be the world’s best known micro-blogging site, but there is nothing micro about their plans to master social media!
Desmond Chung Associate Director, PR & Communications	Let the games begin! The International Olympic Committee recently announced that Tokyo, Japan will host the 2020 games, beating out rival cities Istanbul and Madrid. While world class athletes prepare to do battle in the sports arena, the more interesting competition may be who will win the broadcasting rights for these games regionally! To delve into the complex world of sports, check out Sports Matters taking place 18-19 September in Singapore.
Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant	Smart TV users are actively engaging with interactive advertising, according to a study of UK smart TV users by interactive advertising specialist Smartclip. The company said it found that half of its study’s smart TV users say that they have already interacted with an ad and 31% of people engage in an action as a result of watching a Smart TV ad.