28 November, 2014

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Nov 28th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Brought to you by:

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer	Three years after the SOPA debacle, there is suddenly debate in Washington over an update to U.S. copyright enforcement. The rise of illegal streaming – including through “black box” streaming media players and other means – has finally awakened our colleagues in America, and there’s talk about a bill to make unauthorized streaming of content a criminal matter. (This is a straightforward application of principles well-established in the physical world to internet uploads.) Nothing passed in the last days of the outgoing Congress, but the White House expressed support for the principle.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	My private jet is fuelled up and my hotel suite is reserved. Who else from Asia will I see in Utah as Netflix Summons Entertainment Moguls to an Internet TV Summit? For more on Netflix, Quartz believes that “Netflix is taking the opposite approach: it wants to be everything to everyone”. I’m thinking that that hasn’t worked out for many in the past. There may be some competition soon in the SVOD market in Canada as Bell Media is supposedly launching a Netflix competitor.
Desmond Chung Associate Director, PR & Communications	Is anybody out there? Does it feel like sometimes your activity on social media is akin to yelling into a never ending black abyss – never knowing if your messages are reaching their intended target (OK, so I just watched Interstellar recently). According to new research, social media posts have a positive impact on companies’ sales based on a just completed, large-scale field experiment on the Chinese microblogging service Weibo with a large global media company that produces documentary TV shows.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	Everyone wants to get their hand on OTT research and stats in markets around the world. It may be a while till we have this information for Asia but here is a glimpse into children’s viewing habits in the UK.
Anjan Mitra Executive Director, India	The idea of a super regulator overseeing broadcast & cable, telecoms and information technology sectors is once again being discussed actively in corridors of policy-making in New Delhi. Incidentally, such an idea was first mooted when a previous BJP-led government held federal powers from March 1998 to May 2004. But when introduced in Parliament, The Communications Convergence Bill, 2001 was stalled by policy-makers, which ultimately saw it being put in cold storage. Though, legal critics had hailed it as an exemplary piece of forward-looking draft legislation. Reason? Politicians thought the super-regulator would be too powerful for their liking. Can the present BJP-led government cut through political criticisms to enact a legislation taking into account technology’s march that will also reduce red tape?
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	TrueVisions is back in the news this week, as it maps out a new strategy “to expand its subscriber base into the middle-to-mass market”. “TrueVisions plans to adjust its subscribers’ proportion based on tiers — 50% mass tier, 20% premium tier and 30% mid-tier.”
Sara Madera Director, Member Relations & Marketing	Do you think streaming is the subscription model of the future or ruining the business? This article from the New Yorker on Spotify gives insights on their business model, including whether the disruptor will get disrupted. After that, check out CASBAA 2020‘s thoughts on whether Taylor Swift will be on Spotify in 2020.
Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore	If you, like me, believe that “reality is your friend”, possibly you should take heed of what’s happening in the US cable TV ad market. The article states that Iger (Chairman & CEO of Disney) calls the current ratings situation “very frustrating.” Seems like some things are the same all over the world. Still in the US, US TV audiences decline as SVOD ramps up. Luckily here in Asia we still have some breathing room to possibly adjust business plans accordingly.