Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Nov 21st. 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 |
Worst-kept secret in the industry: Netflix is heading Down Under. It’s been rumoured for what seems like forever, but now it’s confirmed that Australia and New Zealand will be the company’s next international markets. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
In the USA, the FCC Chairman wants to look at licensing OTT players as “Multichannel Video Programming Distributors” (aka pay-TV companies). I kinda think this might be a good opportunity to balance out some of the “Tilted Playing Field” issues – after all, if OTT operators want equal rights with pay-TV networks, they have to expect equal obligations, too! And in a public statement, the US broadcasters said they welcomed the “worthy goals” of this policy re-examination, and hoped the FCC would do it right. But the broadcasters took issue with Chairman Wheeler’s (rather obtuse) comment that existing FCC rules had allowed the broadcasters to stop Internet retransmission startup Aereo. The broadcasters bristled: it wasn’t FCC rules that led to the Supreme Court nixing Aereo, it was the Copyright Act! Said the National Association of Broadcasters: “If the Aereos of the world could simply take what local stations and networks pour billions of dollars into producing …. content creators would have little or no incentive to produce that work.” |
Mark LayVice President, Singapore |
Looking at Asia the options for delivering video content in Thailand are going to greatly increase over the next few years. The parent company of TrueVisions, True Corp, will invest 43 billion baht (US$1.31 billion) over the next two years to increase the reach of high speed Internet access across Thailand. Around ten billion baht will be invested in True Corp’s 4G LTE mobile service, to cover 80% of the population by the middle of 2015. That’s 1.3 BILLION USD!!! To put this in perspective Thailand’s GDP last year was about US $388 billion. |
Desmond ChungAssociate Director, PR & Communications |
So… it’s officially a “thing”. Well, actually, it’s officially been a thing since 1996 when the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed November 21 as World Television Day. This year, viewers are being asked to share their favourite TV moments and contributions made to websites, Facebook and twitter will be collated by local broadcasters with the potential to create a new clip called ‘You love TV.’ Happy World Television Day everybody! |
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
Space X founder Elon Musk apparently wants to get into the satellite internet business, reportedly partnering with Greg Wyler, the founder of O3b Networks. Although one report calls the business a “widowmaker”, there is always keen media interest in what Musk is up to. While you wait for more details on the project, amuse yourself with an animated info-graphic featuring every satellite in orbit over the Earth. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
Meanwhile, here’s another take on a “Tilted Playing Field” issue: An Aussie FTA TV mogul who comes right out and says he doesn’t worry about the government’s market share rules any more; broadcasters are just going to move to online streaming and go right ‘round the rules. Gotta love that……Aussies know how to Tell It Like It Is. I loved this quote: “Everyone watches streamed content these days. If you can watch it from America, trust me you can watch it from Wagga.” Hm. Yes. And vice versa. |
Mark LayVice President, Singapore |
A number of CASBAA members’ channels will be now seen in Malaysia as Astro adds 10 channels. Growing markets are great for business, but not so for US pay-TV operators as they are seeing an increased loss of subscribers. |
Anjan MitraExecutive Director, India |
Lot has been said about the new government in New Delhi; especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fav line about less government and more governance. Small efforts can be seen in streamlining processes of various government permissions and clearances. The latest being putting out a clear-cut format for Home Ministry security clearance for uplink/downlink permissions for TV channels. Meanwhile, TRAI issued its recommendations to regulate cable channels run by MSOs and LCOs). Did we say too soon hail less government? |
Mark LayVice President, Singapore |
How to move a sports brand into OTT? The big US sport leagues of MLB, NFL and NHL have taken the slow and steady approach while protecting the revenues from their existing distribution platforms. WWE took the fast Smackdown approach. Looks like they may have stalled out before hitting their number. |
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