Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Nov 14th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!
Brought to you by:
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
Oh dear, now President Barack Obama has weighed into the fight over net neutrality in the US. Of course, the current political environment there means that it didn’t take long for things to get ugly but whether it will actually affect the FCC’s policy, or just be another polarised political debate remains to be seen. Meanwhile, from the Department of Gross Oversimplifications, a NY Times columnist boils the discussion down to: “Is access to the Internet more like access to electricity, or more like cable television service?” It’s not often that I suggest reading the comments on a blog post, but for this one, it’s kind of worth it. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
Lesson for Asian Governments: Bans on pay-TV Ads kill small independent channels. And it works the other way, too — our own Asian example was Thailand, which banned pay-TV ads for years, until 2008. And when the ad ban was lifted, there was a sudden flowering of new content offerings, with many independent channels entering the market. |
Mark LayVice President, Singapore |
My 6-year old Samsung 52 inch (thick screen) TV is starting to show signs that it will fail soon. Should I buy a cheap 1080p model or a new, super-thin, 4K, curved, sexy beast? Salon suggests that I should be “terrified” bringing home ANY new TV. And The Wall Street Journal is suggesting I wait for 4K. So, Christmas this year or my birthday in June? It all really depends on how fast the lines of dead pixels grow. |
Sara MaderaDirector, Member Relations & Marketing |
|
Desmond ChungAssociate Director, PR & Communications |
It appears we have hit upon something good at CASBAA! To combat online piracy and raise awareness of the availability of legitimate content, the MPAA is launching a new search site – WheretoWatch.com – to make it easy for consumers to find the shows and movies they love online, in movie theatres, on television and in stores. Closer to home, we launched our very own digital TV content guides for Singapore in 2012 and Australia earlier this year! |
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
That noise you heard at Mipcom? The sound of footsteps, coming up behind you? Yep… turns out Netflix is looking seriously at Asia. We already knew about Australia, but it sounds like Japan and Korea could be on the cards. Still… there is some skepticism about whether 2015 will be the year, or whether we’ll continue looking our shoulders for a while longer. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
Here’s an interesting round-up of the OTT market in Europe. It includes lots of (different) views on the ongoing negotiations between rights owners, pay-TV platforms, and stand-alone OTT operators. An analyst from Arthur D. Little sees Apple, which dominates online music, as a big disappointment in the OTT space. “They don’t seem to have a new strategy. The music model is a transaction model, and that will be hard to move into the video space. Video will be a subscription business. Competition will focus on the size of catalogues. Having a big catalogue is important.” |
Mark LayVice President, Singapore |
Samantha Bookman outlines how discovery of OTT content is not yet easy or clear, but apparently it’s a lot more engaging to it’s viewers. HBO, CBS, Starz: is everyone going OTT? According to CFO John Nallen, not Fox. I really like this smart initiative from the MPAA called Where to Watch that provides a guide to find out where to watch any movie or TV show legally. Maybe discovery of OTT content isn’t that hard after all. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
Vietnam is increasingly joining the rest of Asia as a modern and competitive TV market. Unfortunately, that means Vietnamese pay-TV operators are having the same headaches as operators in more developed markets. In Ho Chi Minh City, the operators complain about over-regulation and are at the same time quite concerned that their high-end clientele is cutting the cord in favor of pirate internet feeds. |
| Some additional links you might be interested in: |