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Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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| Plans are in full swing for the CASBAA OTT Summit in Singapore on 1st March and the OTT Forum in Mumbai which will follow two days later on Friday 3rd. We have two packed programmes with a strong speaker line-up at both events. Regular rates for the Singapore event end next week and if you haven’t yet reserved your seat you can download the latest programme and registration form here. Meanwhile thanks to Diagnal and WWE for sponsoring Friday’s invitational event in Mumbai. |
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Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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| Time Warner shareholders have voted to approve the AT&T acquisition, in an overwhelming show of support — of the shares voted, 99% were in favour. This validates AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson’s optimism last week that the deal would go through, probably by the end of the year. Don’t rule out the FCC getting stuck in, though; incoming head Ajit Pai told Fox News that if the deal looks anti-competitive, the agency will “…take appropriate action.” |
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John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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Fun in Washington: new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is not talking publicly about his plans to deal with the “net neutrality” (NN) regulations bequeathed (over Pai’s objections) by previous Chairman Tom Wheeler. The uncertainty is producing “wild swings of sentiment” about Pai, who is said to be seeking an approach to broadband policy which is both pro-competitive and pro-investment.
And he may not get to decide on NN anyway, as some see the Republican Congress as stepping in to make the rules. Indeed, the 20-year-old Telecommunications Act may be ripe for revision. Pai is living in interesting times. |
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Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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| US TV presenter John Oliver has announced that he is running educational ads on several news networks with the intention of bringing viewers up to speed on information surrounding critical issues. The ads are aimed at one specific viewer – President Donald Trump. Oliver says he is running the ads in an attempt to bring POTUS up to speed on information he may lack. According to Oliver, the ads will run between 8:30 and 9 a.m. during MSNBC’s Morning Joe, CNN’s New Day, and Fox News’ Fox and Friends—all shows the President reportedly watches. The ads will cover topics such as the nuclear triad, the Geneva Convention, and the unemployment rate, among other things, and will air specifically in the Washington, D.C. area.
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Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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| So he might have kajillions of viewers on YouTube, but PewDiePie has learned that online tomfoolery has real world consequences; he’s been dropped by Disney’s Maker Studios, he’s lost his “Google Preferred” (higher CPM) advertising status, and he’s had his YouTubeRed show cancelled. All this after the Wall Street Journal exposed (paywall, natch) a bunch of blatantly anti-Semitic videos on his channel. Okay, so he later “apologised”… sort of. And while the whole affair isn’t going to suddenly change the Internet overnight, it certainly highlights the fact that as online stars increasingly attract digital ad revenue, like it or not, their business partners are going to be constantly evaluating their brand alignment.
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John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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| The EU Commission has finalized its “content portability” rules, which come into effect in 2018. These will allow subscribers to HBO Go, Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, etc. etc. to stream their bought-and-paid-for content in any part of the EU, despite single-country copyright licensing. Variety termed these rules the “least contentious” part of the Digital Single Market proposals advanced by the EU. And Europe’s pay-TV industry had said portability could be acceptable, if done right. But other, more frontal attacks on geographic licensing seem to be in the offing, and the pay-TV industry doesn’t like that at all.
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Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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| Snapchat has been getting a lot of attention recently in the financial press about their upcoming IPO, now valued less than their initial guidance. A number of further developments are happening with their Discover/Stories section of the app. Media partnerships have grown from 12, at launch, to more than 40 and it’s now starting to look a lot like TV. Snapchat has recently added ‘Shark Week,’ and other original short form series from Discovery and also just did a multi-show deal with A+E for ‘Second Chance’, and unscripted dating series. Some even believe that Snapchat could bring back TV’s golden age and even be the “HBO of the Smartphone”.
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Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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| It may have been a bit slow off the blocks but Apple has announced it will launch its first foray into original content in the “next few months”. The claim comes from Eddy Cue, the company’s SVP of internet software and services. Speaking at this week’s Code Media conference in California, Cue revealed that Carpool Karaoke and Planet Of The Apps will become available “in most countries in the world” on Apple TV. Mac and iOS devices as part of Apple Music, the company’s subscription music offering. This crowded space is going to get very interesting very fast.
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Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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| Usually, it’s ME who toots Apple’s horn, despite Kevin’s disapproval; but this week, like a lot of others, I’m feeling kinda contrarian about Apple TV— especially after hearing investor Ross Gerber declare it’s “…actually worse than using cable TV used to be, and… the whole goal was to make it better.” And when you read headlines like “Apple’s First TV Show Looks Like a Cry for Help”, and other decidedly luke-warm reviews, it’s hard not to succumb to the snark. Which, in turn raises questions about just how serious Apple is about online video, and what failure in this space would mean for the company.
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John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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| The mundane case of internet piracy relating to Facebook streaming of a boxing match in Australia (which I mentioned last week) became quite a cause célèbre – from both sides. Foxtel made a fuss (saying it was the first time they had come across live-sport piracy of their broadcasts) which BBC called “risking a public backlash.” The usual coterie of academics and internet “experts” cluck-clucked that it was all the fault of Foxtel’s high prices. Foxtel then floated the recording of a conversation by their rep, who called during the match to get one of the pirates to turn off his stream. The threat of prosecution seemed very real (the guys were clearly guilty), but in the end Foxtel decided to get public apologies and drop the idea of prosecutions (to avoid creating martyrs). And they’re going to work with Facebook to improve the latter’s automated takedown tool. Everything concluded with a very eloquent op-ed column by Peter Tonagh, Foxtel’s CEO, who had told the press “This idea of allowing people to be heroes from pirating content is a real issue.”
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Jane Buckthought
Advertising Consultant
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| The chief brand officer at Procter & Gamble, the world’s biggest advertiser, thinks companies have been blissfully dozing in digital’s warm bath for much too long and it’s time they woke up to the truth. Marc Pritchard says consumers are being bombarded with so much technology-created “crap” that it’s little wonder ad-blocking is growing so strongly. Pritchard believes advertisers have no realistic idea of what bang they are getting for their digital buck because measurement methods are unreliable, giving fraudsters a field day.
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John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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| Exit strategy – it’s all about the exit strategy. The venture capital firm which owns Taiwan’s second-biggest MSO, CNS, has struck out for a third time in trying to sell control of the cable company. Regulators got their backs up because the proposed buyer, telco FarEasTone, has a bit of government ownership, and Taiwan has an absolute prohibition on government ownership of “media” companies. (Except when it doesn’t, as in the case of Chung Hwa Telecom…..) FarEasTone rightly called the law “obsolete.” Meanwhile, MBK must be incredibly frustrated. Calling the CNS sale drawn-out would be a vast understatement; the talks with FarEastTone (never mind the other two rejected buyers, Want Want and Ting Hsin) began in 2009!
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Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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| In India the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) set a new precedent in launching satellites this week and successfully launched a rocket which put a record launching 104 satellites into orbit on a single mission. ISRO surpassed its personal best of sending up 20 satellites in one go and it was one for the history books as the previous record was 37 satellites launched by Russia in 2014. All but three of the satellites are from foreign countries, and 96 of them are from the United States. The launch took place from the space centre in east India. Observers say it is a sign that India is emerging as a major player in the multi-billion dollar space market.
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Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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| Don’t expect to see fewer of those anti-smoking messages on TV in India any time soon; in fact, expect even more, if the Ministry of Health gets its way, because of an “…urgent need for better implementation and enforcement.” That comes from a report called “Evaluation of Tobacco-Free Film and Television Policy in India” produced by health-care advocacy group Vital Strategies. The rule was implemented in 2012, and requires insertion of anti-smoking messages on-screen any and every time a character lights up, and the report claims it has been a success, just not implemented completely. And while it’s tough to argue in favour of the tobacco industry, one can wonder whether it’s fair to lay the complete burden of the government’s anti-smoking drive on the shoulders of the media industry.
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Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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| This week’s Economist features a Special Report on Mass Entertainment (at the bottom of the home page), and it’s got loads of takeaways. Among them: in a fragmented media world, blockbusters are more important than ever; even as audiences are migrating to digital platforms, linear TV still has staying power; and as long as you put on a good show, nothing beats a live event. Well worth the read. |
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John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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| So, call me the office Luddite, but I can’t resist pointing out the impending demise of yet another tech product that was long on hype and short on value – the Oculus Rift. It’s “firmly on the bottom of the pack” in terms of sales. Anybody wanna buy a 3-D TV? |
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Andrew Lin
Regulatory Assistant
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| The Philippines Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has announced plans to launch the Digital Terrestrial Television Broadband (DTTB) Migration Plan. The purpose of this plan to shift from an analog broadcasting system to digital in order to provide citizens with a better viewing experience. With the assistance of the Japanese government, this transition to a digital broadcasting system will take around another four to six years.
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