Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending July 25th. 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 |
It’s not really like the dust has had a lot of time to settle on the Murdoch-Time Warner story, but then again, next moves were always expected. Over the past week, all sorts of reactions have been making the rounds; unsurprisingly, many of them have been negative. But some of this week’s follow-ups have provided a broader industry perspective, given near-term historical context, taken a look at the cost of saying “No,” and even exposed the players in the background. Some of the reaction pieces have also been sort of funny, in a slightly mean way, but that’s comedy, I guess. And of course, the story’s still got plenty of legs — expect more next week. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
Here’s a great column. It’s mostly about music but the points about the internet “sharing” culture (a lovely euphemism, that one) are just as valid for video. “Piracy may feel like victimless “free culture” to the user, but they are in fact participating in a digital black market. It’s not about information wanting to be free, but rather it’s about exploitative black marketeers and willfully blind tech companies wanting to get rich.”
And a related point: one of the column’s points is that there are more and more legal options online for obtaining content. One of the prominent legal options for music is the Spotify service. But here’s an article from last week, noting that for this type of service in Asia, piracy is the biggest problem: So when will Asian governments figure out that piracy kills not only their existing content creation and distribution industries, but also the nascent new ones, too!? |
Anjan MitraExecutive Director, India |
If something’s better than nothing, then Indian regulator TRAI’s recommendations on issues related to new DTH licensing regime is a step forward. But industry’s reaction has been mixed. License fees have been reduced, license periods increased and a host of procedural wrinkles have attempted to be smoothed out. All such positives come with a caveat aimed at restricting vertical and horizontal monopoly. This may necessitate restructuring in some DTH companies if MIB accepts TRAI recommendations, unlike letting them gather dust at times as in the past. |
Sara MaderaDirector, Member Relations & Marketing |
My brother tells me that he prefers cable shows because they allow the viewership to build, rather than cancelling shows right away because of low initial ratings—and it appears this is true. Multichannel and premium channels have been known to wait for 3 days or even a month to collect ratings data, which now includes DVR, streaming, and on demand as opposed to the traditional live and day-of numbers of FTA channels. These totals can often double the viewership, showing that the way people watch their favorite shows is changing and reporting too early does not give a full picture. We are way ahead of this trend! |
Desmond ChungAssociate Director, PR & Communications |
Is the North American TV juggernaut flagging? While the worldwide pay-TV market continues to grow in Q1 2014 with the total pay-TV subscriber base is expected to surpass 936.4 million at the end of 2014, the North American cable TV market lost around 4 per cent subscriber base in 2013. However, in the United States, it is estimated by 2017 there will be 204 million connected TV devices linked to the Internet and able to deliver apps to viewers. So the US may still be the land of opportunity – if you know where to look! |
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
Streaming giant Netflix has issued its Q2 results, and the key number is 50 million… as in total subscribers worldwide. The emphasis, of course, is on the “worldwide” part, since the company says it is focusing on international markets for growth. But bear in mind that “international” translates as “Europe” in Netflix-ese, at least for now, although the company has reportedly begun acquiring programming rights in Australia, where VPNs have already given it a sizeable digital market share. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
The “I told you so” department: A few weeks ago, when the Thai coup d’etat was fresh in everyone’s mind, I noted that attempts to block supply of legitimate international news channels would just result in people going online for (even more of) their news. Here’s an article I missed until now, pointing out that one major news supplier reacted by moving their news feeds online, and the ruling junta declined to challenge them. |