29 September, 2017

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending September 29th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Christopher Slaughter CEO In the UK, the Royal Television Society has held its annual conference in Cambridge, featuring a keynote presentation and conversation with 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch. (If you’ve got 47 minutes, it’s a great session, but if you just want to know about the bid for Sky it’s at about 24 minutes in.) Another great RTS session was with A+E Networks President & CEO Nancy Dubuc; again, it’s a bit of a time commitment, but again, some great insights: “When we lost ‘Law and Order’, overnight, we went from #1 or #2 to #30, and we had no choice but to reinvent.”

 

Clare Bloomfield Director, Policy & Research

The battle against piracy in Europe continues, with mixed results. In Belgium, new draft legislation is being pulled together under the Deputy Prime Minister to block access to illegal download sites, whilst in Holland, the Court of Appeal has ruled that ISPs need to block The Pirate Bay, bringing Holland in line with most other EU countries. However over in the UK, prosecutors who were waiting for a long anticipated court case against a shop owner arrested for selling fully loaded Kodi boxes have been thwarted when he suddenly changed his plea to guilty, thus denying a key opportunity for legislators to finally get a ruling on IPTV boxes under the UK Copyright Act.

 

 

Clare Bloomfield Director, Policy & Research

The EU Commission is getting in on the piracy action, and has just published a new set of guidelines outlining how online service providers should tackle illegal content, including piracy. Their communication titled “Tackling Illegal Content Online” is non-binding, but the Commission doesn’t rule out future legislation if significant progress isn’t made. Whilst the proposals go above and beyond current legal requirements and place the majority of the burden on the ISP, there remain concerns about the impact on both small ISPs and freedom of speech.

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

The Apple TV has made its return to Amazon after being removed a couple of years ago. Amazon doesn’t normally allow the sale of media players that don’t support its own Prime Video app so with Apple TV making its way back onto Amazon, the availability of the Prime Video app on Apple TV could be imminent. Meanwhile Amazon has taken the wraps off and launched its new Fire TV with 4K and HDR capabilities. It’s a dongle-based
competitor to Google’s Chromecast Ultra but the upgrade comes on the heels of Apple announcing its own 4K black box with and a new pricing scheme for 4K content a few weeks back so it’s pretty clear where Amazon are looking.

 

 

Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore

Some key stories in the OTT world this week. ITV’s Faz Aftab, the online head of the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, had some interesting insights into online and traditional TV viewership…“82% of TV consumption was still via live TV.” And this is a market with high broadband penetration and speeds. Amazon started streaming NFL games this week and it’s all about collecting ad data. “Amazon will track sales data after each ad so that it can tell a brand exactly how many people purchased or looked up its products after seeing its ad.” Netflix’s Biggest Critic Responds With His Own Paid Service. FX Networks CEO John Landgraf creates FX+ so customers could watch all his shows on demand, stating “we shouldn’t be licensing exclusively”. These stories and heaps more at the CASBAA OTT Group Newsfeed.

 

 

Cathryn Chase Regulatory Assistant

Usage of OTT streaming apps has skyrocketed in India. According to a report by App Annie, India’s top 5 OTT services saw 100% growth in their monthly user base in the first half of 2017, compared to a year ago. The upsurge in the number of monthly active users has been driven by improvements in internet speeds – India has seen its average internet speed increase from 3-odd Mbps to 6.5 Mbps in the last 18 months. Data has also become more affordable, as new entrants, such as Reliance Jio, have increased the competitive intensity of the Indian telecom market. Industry leaders are optimistic about the future of the OTT video content industry, as Indians’ video consumption habits become increasingly data driven and mobile oriented.

 

 

Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore

More troubles for former employees of defunct Thai pay-TV operator Cable Thai Holding Public Company (CTH). The Department of Special Investigation is launching an inquiry into CTH after the Thailand Cable TV Association accused the firm of engaging in share speculation and deceiving its shareholders. I’m no Harry Markopolos, but this seems to be a version of the old pump-and-dump…with a sell-more-shares and steal-the-proceeds twist.

 

 

Kevin Jennings Vice President

Ahead of the launch of the year’s biggest computer games – FIFA 2018 – research from YouGov reveals that close to four million Brits have watched eSports. The report finds that 7 per cent of British adults (approaching four million people) have watched competitive video gaming. Multi-national research shows that Britain is behind other markets when it comes to viewership. In China, 45 per cent of  adults with online access have watched eSports while the figures in in the US, and Germany stand at 12 & 11% respectively The research shows that a solid proportion of existing spectators are reasonably enthusiastic about watching eSports again and the scale of viewership, particularly in China, should see the sector boom.

 

 

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

And for all of you Star Trek fans out there, you’ll no doubt be thrilled to hear that a new spin-off Star Trek: Discovery recently debuted on CBS’s OTT service, leading to the highest ever sign-up day to CBS All Access on record. Live long and Prosper.