Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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NBCU has been hitting the deal trail, taking a US$200 million stake in Vox Media, which operates eight heavily-trafficked websites, and claims to be “…redefining the modern media company.” Last week, one of Vox’s sites, re/code broke the news, and is also reporting that NBCU will be taking a similar stake in listicle-and-viral-video-juggernaut Buzzfeed. That site gets some of the highest social media rankings among US media publishers, and the NBCU investment is likely to only further feed the buzz around the company (groan). |
John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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I’m impressed at the way Silicon Valley companies shamelessly and blatantly use their audience bases to manipulate political issues, using pseudo-populist themes to support their commercial interests.The most clamorous example came in 2012 when Wikipedia and other internet companies replaced their websites with political messages for 24 hours to cudgel the U.S. Congress into rejecting tighter enforcement against online pirate services. Recently, Uber used its apps in New York to mobilize opposition to legislation that would have limited the number of Uber drivers on the streets. The NY Times last weekend published a great commentary on that, noting that what Uber did was “leveraging the power of its app to prompt a populist social-media assault, all in support of a $50 billion corporation.” And now, these tactics have reached Asia; in India, we see Facebook using its apps to broadcast appeals for netizens to support its Internet.org scheme against regulatory threats. And these guys don’t mess around with their crooked publicity! Facebook gave people two choices: Yes, please tell my government I love your brilliant idea; or “Not now.” Note well: there’s no option for negative feedback; you’re not allowed to disagree with Facebook. This is hardball, manipulative populist advocacy, and Silicon Valley has become very good at it. |
Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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If this statement interests you, “Growing up with a supercomputer in your pocket connected to most of the world’s population and knowledge has created an irreversible pattern of behavior unlikely to revert to the ways of previous generations”, you will enjoy “May I Have Your Attention, Please?” As we all know, attention can be monitised but the new players in this market may not have it so easy: YouTube Is a viable TV alternative for advertisers, But some are wary of commitment. Lately the Twittersphere has been all abuzz about how Facebook is going to eat YouTube’s lunch. Wired isn’t convinced…yet, Facebook isn’t a real threat to YouTube …Yet. |
Kevin Jennings
Programme Director
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Interesting news from North America. Mexico’s Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) has said OTT services will not be regulated under the same terms as traditional pay-TV services. Earlier, Mexican TV providers Televisa and TV Azteca had asked that the IFT treated and considered streaming services as similar to their own pay-TV services.The ruling means OTT video services, such as Netflix or América Móvil’s Clarovideo, will not be considered as pay-TV services or be regulated the same way as the telecom market in Mexico. Not quite the level playing field the TV operators were looking for. Meanwhile, in Canada the Prime Minister says he doesn’t want Netflix to pay sales taxes (as other pay-TV operators do), but the tax authorities say if Netflix doesn’t pay, then individual users are liable. That won’t be popular. |
Anjan Mitra
Executive Director, India
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TRAI’s new chairman, a tech-savvy former bureaucrat, is finally in office. Coming from Department of Telecoms, chief regulator RS Sharma ought to be familiar with many of the pending and contentious issues, including net neutrality, OTT, online piracy, bandwidth crunch, etc. What may be slightly unfamiliar are hardcore broadcast issues like price caps of TV channels and getting MSOs, LCOs and broadcasters on same page on matters financial. But, Sharma has also to contend with, what his predecessor described as, “policy paralysis” or lack of decision making in Telecoms Ministry. |
Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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Despite clear evidence of the binge-watching trend, US OTT service Hulu has decided to turn the clock back, and will release new episodes of its original programming weekly, instead of all at once. (It’s not that Hulu subscribers can’t binge-watch other shows, just not the new ones.) Meanwhile, if it seems like a Greek chorus of nay-sayers is starting to form to bemoan the current state of TV, not to worry, there are still plenty of cheerleaders for the new Golden Age. |
Jane Buckthought
Advertising Consultant
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Zenith Optimedia’s online video forecasts report predicts that video usage on mobile devices will grow by over 43% in 2015 and over 34% in 2016. It expects mobile to become the main platform for viewing online video, accounting for over 52% of online viewing in 2016 and 58% in 2017. |
John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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India has over 100 TV news channels, and not all of them are run in a completely ethical fashion. So there’s been a debate, frequently behind closed doors, over whether having news channels controlled by political parties, state governments and various other actors is healthy. Now Subhash Chandra, the Grand Old Man of Indian commercial TV, has weighed in publicly, saying “licenses should not be issued without proper checks.” He went on to suggest that news channel ownership should be scrutinized as rigorously as bank ownership. Now, he said, “A few entities have started news media businesses as a shield for their illegal activities… We should not be surprised if some of these news channels are owned by underworld elements.” |
Anjan Mitra
Executive Director, India
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‘Can’t be present in everyone’s bedroom,’ Indian Government’s lawyer informed Supreme Court on banning porn sites. Lame official defence notwithstanding, critics asked why at all the government directed an un-implementable ban. Adding to worries, MIB issued show-cause notices to few TV news channels on debating hanging of a convicted terrorist. Highlighting government double-speak on individual and media freedom vis-a-vis arm-twisting , an editorial in The Hindu called it an “outrageous overreach” of the government’s powers. |
