Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Mar 14th. 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 |
Authentication processes for OTT services are still too “clunky”, ESPN head John Skipper said during a session at SXSW this week. Skipper should know, since he first took charge of what was then ESPN.com back in 2000, and has watched the online service develop massively since then. But his valid criticism highlights one of the key aspects of the OTT user experience, an area where much work remains to be done. No surprise, then, that authentication is a topic that will be explored at length in CASBAA’s OTT Summit in Singapore on March 25th!Meanwhile, Skipper’s comments came during the annual SXSW conference, which wrapped up in Austin,Texas this week. What started as an indie music festival has morphed into a must-attend hipster love-in notionally devoted to tech, but actually devoted to marketing and social media. And what was the hippest trend at SXSW this year? Plain old television. |
Desmond ChungAssociate Director, PR & Communications |
In case you have been living on a frozen orb out in the Kuiper belt, tongues have been wagging over the announcement that Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television Group, is stepping away after 18 years to pursue her dream of directing. Read about her decision in her own words. The new game in town now is playing “guess who will replace Sweeney”. Forget the Oscars pool – this is in a whole different league! |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
Two great commentaries on media regulation in Australia!The Sydney Morning Herald’s view shows eminent good sense! And it is applicable to governments all over Asia, not just Australia: “The starting point (for dealing with convergence) has to be that less regulation beats trying to control a rapidly moving market where consumer preference increasingly rules.”
A commentary entitled “Time to ditch antiquated media regulations” on the ABC website states it even more clearly: “It is fundamentally absurd that the same (media ownership) restrictions…are being applied to our media-rich world as were being applied to the media-constrained world of 1935.” |
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
Next week, the Festival of Media gets underway in Singapore, with the theme “Agility.” Pay-TV is very much a feature of the event, with Sony Pictures Television President Steve Mosko featured in a keynote interview on Day One. The studio that brought the world Breaking Bad and The Blacklist is coming off one of its best years ever, and it’s sure to be a lively discussion. Oh, and did we mention that CASBAA members get a 10% discount with the promotional code cas10mpx? |
Sara MaderaDirector, Member Relations & Marketing |
To hear Netflix tell it, their story is something out of a Malcolm Gladwell book, a classic David and Goliath story… plucky online upstart (Netflix) takes on pay TV giant (HBO). Headline writers love that story, but fortunately, sometimes cooler heads do prevail, even in journalism. A very good piece in Quartz this week looks at the truth behind the spin… the two companies are fundamentally quite different. |
Godfrey ChanMarketing & Member Relations Executive |
Is the Hong Kong Media Industry still as free as we think? With a number of press veterans assaulted in recent years, is this evidence that there are efforts to prevent the expansion of the TV industry? “What is happening to Hong Kong?” seems to be the question now on the minds of locals and international observers. |
Anjan MitraExecutive Director, India |
In case you missed the CASBAA India Forum 2014 on March 5, Disha TV India and Disha TV USA will air an hour-long special on March 16th at 2 pm – 3 pm IST on the following channels: TATA SKY (Ch. 186), Airtel Digital (Ch. 689), DD Direct Plus (Ch. 13), Dish TV (Ch. 1113), and Direc TV DTH (Ch. 2005 USA). Watch live streaming of the programme at www.dishatv.com or via the Jadoo plus IPTV Platform. |
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