Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Mar 27th. 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 |
Netflix has officially launched its Australian service, and it will either be a fantastic success, or is a bad idea that will ruin the TV business Down Under, depending on who you ask; but either way, it’s ready for a fight. Among other things, CEO Reed Hastings is touting his service as the solution to piracy, while sidestepping questions about VPNs. Meanwhile, #2 carrier Optus is jumping on the bandwagon, paying British comedian Ricky Gervais “…a shedload of money” to be a pitchman for its partnership with Netflix. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
It’s the thing, in Asia: there are moves afoot in several markets against OTT services – but not the video ones. It’s the messaging/voice apps like Whatsapp and Wechat that are being targeted, and the motivating force is the interest of local telcos, who are seeing revenues decimated as consumers move from paid telco messaging services to “free” online ones. Vietnam has been mulling regulations that would cut in local telcos for a share of the action. India’s TRAI is mulling a consultation paper on how to handle OTT services, after telco Airtel floated and then withdrew a scheme to charge app users more for data. (By the way, that paper is now overdue – we can imagine the behind-the-scenes tussle going on.) A senior TRAi official told the CASBAA India Forum this week that the scope of the Authority’s ideas would certainly include video OTT services, as well as messaging services. Indonesia’s communication Minister told CASBAA’s “Indonesia in View” conference in January he was quite concerned at the issue, and wanted to promote dialogue between local companies and foreign OTT operators. In China, the issue for the telcos isn’t foreign operators, it’s domestic ones like WeChat, andnow there’s news of a commercial response by China Mobile, which is putting 200 million versions of its own app on 4G handsets to be sold this year. (P.S. Ignore the typo in that article…even in Asia, telcos don’t provide Short Massage Service!) |
Mark LayVice President, Singapore |
With cable and satellite TV subscriber numbers dropping in Canada it seems like an odd time for a regulator to be dictating bundling (or more like it, unbundling) arrangements for pay-TV operators. But, this is exactly what the CRTC is doing. “The country’s TV regulator has ordered domestic carriers to allow consumers to pick and pay for the Canadian and American TV channels they want by December 2016.” |
Kevin JenningsProgramme Director |
The New York Times has reported that Facebook has been in talks with “half a dozen” news publishers over its plans to host news content on its own site, and give publishers a share of the advertising revenues instead of driving traffic to the publishers’ own websites. If the trial works this would have significant knock-on effects for content owners asFacebook will make the experience as seamless as possible. |
Jane BuckthoughtAdvertising Consultant |
TV is still growing with the worldwide pay-TV market grew at a steady rate of 4 percent last year, reaching 923.5 million subscribers, according to ABI Research. And the latest Australian Multi-Screen Report, covering Q4 2014, finds that viewing of video content on internet-connected devices is up year-on-year, but remains small relative to the amount of time that Australians spend watching broadcast TV on in-home sets. |
Anjan MitraExecutive Director, India
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Government proposes, Supreme Court disposes. That’s what has happened in India. A draconian law has been struck down by SC relating to online posts and arrests of citizens. But as fine prints of the verdict is being studied, it seems another clause relating to online piracy of content hasn’t been touched by the court. The dance of democracy continues. |
Sara MaderaDirector, Member Relations & Marketing |
An interesting item in from Myanmar: It seems that the government there, dismayed by the proliferation of satellite dishes receiving programming from all over, is planning to ban dishes aimed at receiving foreign broadcasts. That would be good news for Myanmar’s own pay-TV operators, for whom overspill broadcasts are a huge issue. The trend toward trying to stem consumption of foreign broadcasts has been spreading in SE Asia — Brunei did the same thing last year, adding to a list that already includes Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. Meanwhile, there’s the internet… |
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
With the launch of the fifth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones imminent, little surprise that GoT has been in the headlines a lot, especially after the showrunners confirmed that they are outpacing the novels on which the series is based. As part of the publicity build-up, a preview has been screened (with the requisite red carpet), behind-the-screen videos are up on YouTube, drones have been banned in Northern Ireland, Sansa pitches “The Real Housewives of Westeros”, oh, and Cersei loves her tattoos. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
The problem of media ownership in Thailand is on the front burner, as a deeply divided NBTC regulatory commission decided not to enforce cross-ownership restrictions that were theoretically in place for the digital terrestrial licensees. Afterwards, Commissioners and others warned about the long-term effects of abandoning the rules.
Meanwhile, commentaries indicate that satellite TV is still competitive in Thailand, as many consumers don’t see the need to change from their existing connections. Nielsen reported that 75% of the nation’s TV households are getting their TV from cable and satellite, with only a quarter using terrestrial antennas. |
Kevin JenningsProgramme Director |
Ex Hulu chief Jason Kilar has launched his new streaming video service called Vessel which focuses on short-form videos, similar to YouTube, and promises early access to new clips for a subscription of USD 2.99 per month. After the exclusive period, usually around three days, the videos are free to view, with ads. Some of its early-access content includes A+E programmes, a new series starring Alec Baldwin as a New York taxi driver and the food programme Tastemade. Vessel also has deals with Universal Music and Warner Music for early access to music videos. |
Jane BuckthoughtAdvertising Consultant |
A new report is out related to Snapchat’s Discover service which is reinventing scheduled broadcast TV for smartphones. Integrating TV-style brand advertising aimed at 200 million valuable, hard-to-reach Millennials (teens and adults under-34). Major broadcasters (MTV, CNN, ESPN) and brands (BMW, McDonald’s) have signed up as launch partners. |