Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending June 19th. 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 |
New t-shirt idea: “WWABBD?”… or “What Will Alibaba Do?” Among the answers, apparently, is launch Netflix in China before Netflix can get its market entry sorted. (Remember, it was just a month ago that Netflix’s share price soared on rumors of a potential partnership with Alibaba; predictably, they’ve taken a hit on the more recent news.) But Alibaba’s TMall Box Office (or “TBO” for short, hmmm…) isn’t the only streaming deal the online behemoth has in the works — it’s also backing a plan by Gehua, Beijing’s municipally-owned cable operator, to expand its video streaming service across China. In another effort being compared to Netflix, the less-catchily-named “China TV Theaters Operating Co” (中国电视院线运营公司) has two other state-owned partners, and is seeking to bring together cable operators across the country, to leverage scale and negotiate content deals directly with rights-owners. |
Mark LayVice President, Singapore |
Rupert Murdoch himself has confirmed that last week’s reports were on the money, and he is handing over the reins at Fox to his sons Lachlan and James, effective July 1. COO Chase Carey will step aside and into a new role as Executive Vice-Chairman that he will hold through June 2016. All company operations will jointly report to the brothers. James will now be CEO and report to the Chairman and the Board of Directors, with Lachlan being Executive Chairman reporting to the Board. And as expected, Rupert will stay on as Chairman. No drama here, no pressure on the new generation, it’s not like anyone will be second-guessing them, or anything like that, no sireee. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
The Aussie Communications Minister made two noteworthy statements this week, on two very different issues. He said the government would review the operations of the telecoms and broadcasting regulator ACMA to ensure Australia’s regulatory framework is “future-focused” and “able to effectively deal with challenges arising from a rapidly changing communications sector.” Good plan; let’s see if they can really bring themselves to deal with the very tilted playing field.
And then he expressed strong support for getting new copyright legislation passed, including Australia’s first-ever provisions allowing courts to order pirate websites blocked in Australia. As a sop to consumer advocates who have been opposing the legislation on the basis it could take away consumers’ right to use VPNs, Turnbull said the new legislation would not permit closing down consumer access to VPNs used to access programming in other countries: “If Australian rights owners have got issues about American sites selling content to Australians in respect of which they do not have Australian rights, they should take it up with them.” So no new legislation, but legal analysts have said whether VPN use is legal would be “likely to depend on the specific circumstances and the terms and conditions relating to the transaction.” |
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
Latest chatter from the Ministry of M&A: of course Comcast wants to buy T-Mobile, but then again, no Comcast doesn’t want to buy T-Mobile, but then what happened to Dish buying T-Mobile, and anyway, the whole thing is just the Worst Idea Ever. |
Mark LayVice President, Singapore |
What is going on with TV Shows nowadays, and what is the future of Television? I Love Lucy, the first big sitcom, produced 35 half hour programs in its inaugural season. Thereafter, for a long time, broadcasters ruled that there would be between 22 and 24 episodes per season. Then things started slowly heading south. Now, with shows like Silicon Valley and Veep, 10 Episodes Is the New 13. Soon the world may all turn British and our view of a highly successful TV show will be 2 seasons long and have 6 episodes in each. I, literally, couldn’t get enough of The (original) Office where, David Brent, like new TV programmers, doesn’t live by “the rules” either. |
Kevin JenningsProgramme Director |
According to the Global OTT TV & Video Forecasts report from Digital TV Research, Global OTT TV and video revenues [covering 64 countries] will reach $51.1 billion in 2020; a massive increase from the $4.2 billion recorded in 2010 and the $26.0 billion expected in 2015.
As expected the US will remain the dominant territory – with OTT TV and video revenues rising by $16.6 billion between 2010 and 2020 to $19.1 billion but China’s OTT TV and video revenues are predicted to sky rocket from just $40 million in 2010 to $2,815 million by 2020. In addition, SVOD revenues will soar from $1.0 billion in 2010 to $21.6 billion in 2020 with SVOD set to become the largest revenue source by 2020, overtaking OTT advertising. |
Anjan MitraExecutive Director, India |
Jurassic World has some Indian competition. Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd at an AGM earlier this week unveiled its digital vision aka Reliance JIO’s 4G services. Sample some facts: initial coverage of over 90% urban India and over 215,000 villages; 250,000 km of fibre optics; capacity to serve over 100 mn broadband subs; low-cost 4G LTE smart phones starting from INR 4,000/USD 62; basic monthly subscription charge of INR 300-500/USD5-8; 18 per cent of India’s spectrum across five bands. Though the stock markets or river Ganga did not erupt into flames at these announcements, experts believe at some point “smaller operators may begin to question their own business model…or even put their hands up“. Granted an MSO licence too this week, RJIO, which started to drip-irrigate its apps beginning with JIO Chat, proposes to invest INR 700 billion or approx USD 14 billion. A classic Reliance disruption or some kick-ass dino moves? “No,” a friend in RIL said, with tongue firmly in cheek,” That’s what it takes to build #DigitalBharat (Digital India).” We have noted the hash tag. |
Jane BuckthoughtAdvertising Consultant |
Some interesting research suggests that OTT consumers are getting to grips the technology and are becoming more demanding, expecting at the very least that OTT services are available on different devices and while consumer stickiness is driven by exclusive content. Another piece of research indicates a strong preference among mobile video consumers to view and navigate videos in their native languages. 80% of those surveyed in India also said they would prefer a single OTT app for finding both regional and international video content. |
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
Copy-rant alert!!! Storied rock producer Steve Albini recently declared that “… the intellectual construct of copyright and intellectual property ownership is not realistic.” (To be fair, Albini’s been a scatological curmudgeon about the music business since, oh, about 1993.) In reply, guitar legend Marc Ribot (who has played with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, and many more), asked in an open letter if Albini was “… just another lousy hypocrite shilling for Google and other huge tech companies…” and made it very clear: “If we don’t have copyright, we don’t get paid.” Hmmm… fighting words, indeed. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
As the “big bundle” offered by pay-TV suppliers in the USA comes under commercial pressure from various online offerings, this commentary on “Why Does the Cable-TV Bundle Exist?” is a useful bit of history. But the article concludes that debates over “to bundle or not to bundle” are increasingly irrelevant: “The technology of Internet-delivered TV programming is swamping the argument of whether cable operators ought to bundle or unbundle their cable channels…” |