24 November, 2017

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending November 24th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer The Internet Hysteria Machine is churning out lots of full-throated screams about the FCC’s intended reversal of the full-on regulation of the ISP industry adopted in the name of “net neutrality” under the Obama administration. What else can you call it when Popular Mechanics, for Pete’s sake, blares forth this headline: “FCC Is Revving Up To Destroy The Internet As We Know It.” Very insightful, eh? Conducive to understanding the issues? Nah…as this blogger noted, discussion of the issues gets drowned in a sea of partisan passions. Anyway, the new regs are likely to get tied up in court for a long time to come. Or maybe Congress will actually do its job, and pass some legislation. Paragraph for policy wonks, who may want to actually look at the 200+ pages of the draft order; there are some thought-provoking issues buried in it. What I see is a move away from over-regulation (e.g. banning paid prioritisation), but a swing of the pendulum all the way to under-regulation. The draft abolishes the rules against blocking or throttling websites, too, in favour of relying on the fact that “numerous ISPs, including the four largest fixed ISPs, have publicly committed not to block or throttle the content that consumers choose”, and that there’s no real evidence that consumers in the past were prevented from accessing (legal) content by blocking or throttling. But I have to say, that’s only modestly reassuring – after all, before 2016 there was no evidence of malign forces using social media to steal elections, either…..

 

Clare Bloomfield Director, Policy & Research

Whilst much of the focus of the industry news this week is obviously on the US and the FCC roll-back of net neutrality, research from the other part of the world shows that the UK is at the epicentre of the explosion in OTT VOD services across the European Union and Turkey, although the Dutch are apparently catching up fast. Although, as a piece by the BBC shows, statistics and measuring can often be misleading, especially if you are trying to measure how much media has been consumed online.

 

 

Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant

The UK’s Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), often heralded as the world leader in anti-piracy enforcement, has released an official guidance on Illicit Streaming Devices (ISDs), in which they state their stance on the legality of ISDs. In the guidance, the government clarifies that “the devices are legal when used to watch legitimate, free-to-air, content; they become illegal once they are adapted to stream illicit content”. The guidance also offers useful information on identifying ISDs, and the dangers of using these devices. The legality of ISDs has been a grey area for consumers and governments alike, but strong statements from intellectual property offices like this one go a long way in clarifying the reality of the situation.

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has continued its enforcement campaign against “Kodi” repositories housing piracy apps. A bunch of developers received cease-and-desist notices, and some prominent piracy-oriented add-ons have closed down and left the market. But it’s not going to be completely smooth going, as some of the developers are vowing defiance. One (pursued by Dish-TV) is looking for crowdfunding to pay legal costs so he can resist, in the courts. He’s worried about being unable to pay for lawyers. Of course, his financial prospects would improve if he’d stop the piracy and get an honest job…..

 

 

Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant

In 1996, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 November to be World Television Day. On this very special – if rather arbitrary – date, we are meant to spend the day celebrating, promoting and proclaiming the power of telly – which is still worth doing. With all the palaver about digital, TV broadcasters and trade bodies from around the world have joined together for the first time to release global figures that look to prove TV’s effectiveness as an advertising medium. The Global TV Deck compiles data from an initial 19 countries to give a more robust picture of TV’s reach, popularity, resilience, trust, impact, and effectiveness across different regions.

 

 

Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore

In my ongoing effort to try to dominate OTT related stories in News Views here are the ones I found most interesting this week. Find out What Pay-TV operators must do to keep the ‘Content Connoisseurs’ happy. Defined as fickle, demanding and quick to churn… reminds me of a an ex, or two. See how TV networks are addressing the evolving demands of marketers and audiences. My fave line, “is someone watching an episode of their favourite program on catch-up during the middle of the day now worth the same value to an advertiser as the same viewer watching during ‘traditional prime time”? China, Middle East, Australia and Africa: Launching OTT in emerging markets on four continents. And because it comes to the heart of OTT and massive disruption in the industry, Murdoch Sale Talks Underscore Digital’s Effect in Disrupting Hollywood. “Malone, an architect of the cable service industry, said it was essentially game over for the old guard to catch up with Netflix.” “The only counter-attack, in the view of many biz watchers, is for the largest content providers and distributors to grab market share through acquisitions and to become more global as fast as their feet can take them overseas.” More stories on the CASBAA OTT Group Newsfeed.

 

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

Here’s a juicy tidbit for longtime observers of Taiwan’s cable wars. The NCC has moved against cable MSO Kbro for unplugging a couple of channels originated by FTA broadcaster Formosa TV, after FTV did a carriage deal with Chung Hwa Telecom’s MOD platform. Everybody knows that for years the cable operators wouldn’t let channels carried on MOD also appear on their platform, but the NCC now says they are going to enforce laws and antitrust settlements requiring equal access for all channels. Stay tuned.

 

 

Jane Buckthought Advertising Consultant

WARC (an online service offering advertising best practice, evidence and insights from the world’s leading brands) has released its first Global Ad Trends Report, offering new insights into global adspend trends. The study shows that TV accounts for 66% of media spend in successful high budget ($10m+) ad campaigns, 8% for low budget campaigns (up to $500k), and between 25-60% for mid-budget campaigns ($500k to $10m). Despite the rise of online advertising, high-budget campaigns continue to focus on TV, which accounts for 24% of daily media consumption. WARC’s data also reveals that TV drew 34.9% ($141.8bn) of global adspend last year whilst the proportion of budget allocated to TV has also increased.

 

See more at warc.com.

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

The tug-of-war between Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications and user-generated  content (UGC) platforms continues. The MIC Minister told Parliament that Facebook hasn’t been sufficiently cooperative in blocking what the government calls “toxic” content. Google and YouTube have been better, he said. The government is looking at legislating new rules (with possible penalties), and also at promoting indigenous Vietnamese social media platforms that might be more cooperative.