Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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Another week, another couple dozen stories about Netflix: between slamming NBC’s efforts to develop Netflix ratings during the Television Critics Association winter tour, and its well-received but lower-than-last-year Q4 earnings report, the company — as usual — has been getting a lot of ink. There’ve been more musings about its delayed entry into China, a "thought-piece" about how it is “the most feared force in Hollywood”, and a closer look at its content strategy and acquisition negotiations. Oh, and it’s also been called out for an inconsistent stand on net neutrality, and been scoffed at for thinking it can stop VPN users from accessing the US-based service. |
John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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Singapore announced this week a merger of its previously-separate regulatory bodies, MDA and IDA. The new regulator, to be called IMDA, will come into existence later this year, under the leadership of MDA’s current CEO, Gabriel Lim. Everybody seems to be favorable to the change; officials were quick to promise that a review and streamlining of the laws governing broadcasting and telecom will follow soon. I hope that’s true; in Hong Kong the bureaucratic merger took place four years ago, and we’re still waiting for promised legislative reforms. |
Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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Cross border content in Europe continues to be a big fight; in the latest development the European parliament voted another resolution pressing the European Commission to force content owners to offer their content across borders. MEPs say the geo-blocking of online access to goods and services on the basis of their IP address, postal address or the country of issue of credit cards is unjustified in the EU’s “single market” and it should stop. The parliament is angry that its previous resolutions along this line have not been fully implemented; as the European Commission has so far taken a more middle-of-the road approach, which we described in News Views a couple of weeks ago. So we can see if this week’s resolution has any more effect. |
John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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Meanwhile, another European body, the Competition Directorate, opened another front in the war against single-country content licensing, summoning content providers and Sky to hearings in Brussels to defend themselves against claims that EU antitrust law requires they license content for distribution across the entire Union. The major movie studios and Sky are resisting; commentators said that the entire basis of the content industry in Europe is at play, and they may well be right. “The fundamental problem with (the EU’s) initiative is that if you push it forward, it breaks down the whole licensing model, and therefore the whole value chain on which this industry has been built…” |
Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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Hong Kong’s proposed new copyright law — which CASBAA has been working on for ten years now — is proceeding at a snail’s pace through the Legislative Council, as a result of all manner of ridiculous procedural jiggery-pokery. However, the legislators stalling the bill stuffed up their timing this week, allowing the pro-government bloc to pass the bill’s second reading (it needs to pass three votes to be ratified). But don’t expect to see it zoom ahead now; more tomfoolery is promised, which is producing a growing impatience to get it over with. |
Anjan Mitra
Executive Director, India
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Seemingly (and that’s a very important word) the gloves are off. Indian telecoms and broadcast carriage regulator has castigated Facebook publicly for not only twisting facts, but also trying to take undue advantage of a consultation paper floated by the regulator on the issue of differential pricing and net neutrality. However, an interesting observation came from a critic who observed public now sees the Internet not just in market terms, but as a social phenomenon that requires public interest regulation. Now, in India regulation of any sort, in public interest or not, always has 50 shades of grey. |
Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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The National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) is happening in Miami this week. A few interesting stories have come out about it. The show kicked off with a Lively Debate About Pros and Cons of Peak TV. Speaking about TV executives, one panelist said, "We seem to be the only part of the culture that bemoans an abundance of quality programming.” In the Rights, Deals and Negotiation segment: “With non-traditional television development, there’s a huge opportunity to use digital platforms as an incubator…” On the OTT panel: "You always hear people say, "digital wants to be TV and TV wants to be digital, but it is actually coming together." |
Yegee Chun
Regulatory Assistant
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The rollout of “smart homes” in full swing, in a niche market of early adopters led by Google-owned Nest, Samsung’s SmartThings, and Apple’s HomeKit. For pay-TV operators, this could mean an opportunity to develop their own software to run connected objects and integrate a TV/broadband service, which this author believes would reduce churn. AT&T and Comcast have hopped on this bandwagon, though the latter experienced problems earlier this month when researchers found a simple way to hack its home security system. |
Jane Buckthought
Advertising Consultant
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Jack Myers, chairman of marketing intelligence firm MyersBizNet, thinks that this year we will see “the beginning of a long-term trend of marketers returning to legacy media,” including TV and radio. Meanwhile in China, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, categorised as Fast-track Asia, recorded the highest growth rate among all the regions, at 9%, in the global market between 2015 to 2016. |
Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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What’s happening with pay-TV powerhouse ESPN these days? The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) had an in depth article with President, John Skipper. Fierce Cable did a good summary of it with Skipper saying, "We are still engaged in the most successful business model in the history of media, and see no reason to abandon it.” To hear Skipper’s views on Apple, Sling TV and sports rights, the Q&A page is open to view, which also includes a nice little get-to-know-you video of Skipper. |
Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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The Australian government has announced it intends to introduce changes to media ownership rules in the next six months. The communications minister, Mitch Fifield, says media laws should reflect today’s world as current legislation is gradually being rendered redundant by new technology and the choices being offered to consumers. Australia’s media ownership laws have remained unchanged for over a decade. The laws prevented cross media ownership of newspapers, television and radio broadcasting licences that served the same region and limitation on foreign investment across those sectors. While the extent of the proposed change to the legislation is still under wraps, the government has said that broadcastsers must remain viable but there are two elements that need changing: the reach rule, which stops the big free-to-air networks from buying regional affiliates if it means they will then reach more than 75% of the population; and the two-thirds rule, which prevents proprietors from owning print, television and radio networks in one market. |
John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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China’s censors are at it again – ordering popular programs off of internet broadcasting platforms. It seems the problem with one of the most viewed shows, “Go Princess Go,” is that it depicts time travel. Or maybe it’s a problem that the “princess” starts out the series as a “playboy,” and has a sex change operation. Either way, clearly a threat to the nation. |
John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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In Korea, the proposed merger between SK Telecom and CJ Hellovision continues to roil the waters. Rival telcos KT and LG have been furiously lobbying against the deal, which is under review by regulators. Everybody seems to agree that the outcome is crucial for the future of South Korea’s communications operators. |
Jane Buckthought
Advertising Consultant
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An interesting report from the research company Parks Associates claims one third of U.K. broadband households had subscribed to an OTT video service as of Q3 2015. Parks Associates claimed that OTT video usage in the U.K. favors broadcasters with the most popular OTT video sources in the U.K. including BBC’s iPlayer, ITV Player, All4, and Demand5—all catch-up or on-demand offerings from broadcasters. New OTT video market entrants, especially those with paid services, will have to provide unique value in order to make substantial gains. That said, around 20% of UK broadband households have recently used a Netflix service, despite the free OTT catch-up options. |
Kevin Jennings
Vice President, Programme
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Pakistani authorities have lifted a three-year ban on Google-owned YouTube following the launch of the site’s local version. As well as Pakistan, YouTube has also launched homepages for its users in Nepal and Sri Lanka, with each homepage featuring a localized languages and domains. Unlike Nepal and Sri Lanka though, the new Pakistan version includes a backroom agreement which will allow the government to strictly monitor the site and can remove and block any material they deem offensive. |
