3 February, 2017

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Feb 3rd. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Christopher Slaughter CEO Further confirmation (if needed) of the shift in ad-spend toward digital, Facebook’s Q4 ad revenue was up by 53% over the previous quarter, “raking it in” despite all the negative press about it being a purveyor of fake news.  The earnings report comes along side other news of the social media giant’s plans to “suck more dollars into its social maw” by launching a marketing mix model tool to facilitate comparisons between Facebook ad campaigns and campaigns using other media.  (Clearly an effort to redress its previously distorted usage metrics.)

Mark Lay Vice President, Singapore

Meanwhile, Facebook is extending its empire-building to new territory, reportedly building an app that will bring its video onto users’ TV screens  as part of its efforts “…to shift itself from a mobile-first to video-first entity.” Just last week Facebook told us they were tweaking their algorithm to start showing more longer form videos in their news feed, as it “gears up to launch original shows”. Hmmm… we are in the long-form video business, and on users’ TV screens. Interesting times, for sure.

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

The Kodi video software has been much in the news lately.  (It is frequently used for piracy, by means of easy add-ons.)  Law enforcers and content owners are seeking ways to curtail Kodi-powered piracy, but it’s not easy, as laws haven’t caught up.   Now there’s a significant test case under way in the UK, where a box seller has pleaded “not guilty” to copyright violations, despite selling boxes that were fully loaded with Kodi pirate add-ons.  A legal blog said this case “is likely to be monitored closely by broadcasters and sports bodies eager to preserve the value of their rights in sporting content.”  And normally pro-piracy (oh, sorry, pro-“sharing”) website Torrentfreak says it’ll be “nothing short of a miracle” if the seller wins the case.

Christopher Slaughter CEO

At the risk of looking like the fan-boy Kevin accuses me of being, I do watch Apple rather closely; this week, CEO Tim Cook rewarded my gaze by hinting about further efforts in the content space.  With Services (which includes the App Store, iTunes, Apple Music, iCloud, etc) helping fuel a record quarter, there’s plenty of speculation (again) that the division could soon be more than just dabbling in original content.  And although Cook said he’s happy with it, the new Apple TV is reportedly not selling well, which probably explains his comment that “…we have more things planned for it.”

Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme

Remember back in 2015, when the BBC wound up cutting a deal with the Conservative government to get its charter renewed?  One of the strings that came attached to that renewal was the funding of local reporters across the UK; at the time, details were thin, but now the full plan has been released.  Meantime, the incoming Chairman Sir David Clementi (the man who originally proposed scrapping the BBC Trust) has started work, already warning that the terms of that renewal deal are going to put the Beeb under “severe financial pressure.”

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

Vibrations from India’s cultural machine are felt throughout Asia, but particularly in its neighboring countries, where people like Indian movies and TV a lot.  In Pakistan this week, the government confirmed that Indian films can once again be exhibited, after a ban of a few months last year.  And in Bangladesh, a judge nixed a moralizing lawyer’s request for a ban on three Indian TV channels.

Christopher Slaughter CEO

Since the New Year, my morning ritual has changed; I now begin each day with a cold cup of outrage, flavored with a heaping teaspoon of disgust, as I read about what happened in Washington overnight.  And while it’s possible that I’ve been slightly overdoing it lately, I’m not quite burnt out yet.  So when a National Prayer Breakfast becomes all about Celebrity Apprentice (or was it really all about Ivanka?), and the announcement of a Supreme Court Justice becomes reality TV, frankly, I’m not surprised.  I just lean back and take another sip.

John Medeiros Chief Policy Officer

Going in different directions:   while the UK ISP industry has just begun implementing its “three-strike” notice system, under which ISPs send notices to consumers caught downloading pirated programming, in the US the stakeholders have abandoned the parallel “Copyright Alert System” (CAS). The CAS was informally known as a “six-strike” program, and it generated more than a million alerts in its first 10 months.   But it was expensive to operate, and its major proponents in the MPAA and RIAA don’t seem to think it was doing enough good, as hard-core downloaders are simply not deterred by nice little notices, no matter how many they get.   It seems to me that unless you give repeat offenders a concrete incentive to comply (for example, tell them their bandwidth would be throttled back after a certain number of notices), they are never going to pay attention.  (In practice, neither the UK nor the US system gave people the necessary incentives to comply.)

Andrew Lin Regulatory Assistant

Thailand’s NBTC will be getting restructured later this year; the number of Commissioners will go down from 11 to 7, and there will no longer be a separate “broadcasting” committee that governs our industry.

Kevin Jennings Vice President, Programme

The US is gearing up for the NFL Super Bowl this weekend, and while gridiron might not be to everyone’s taste, the Big Game is almost as much about the ads as what happens on the field. And with Kantar estimating that Fox could earn up to half a billion dollars in ad revenue from the game (with 30-second spots reportedly going for a cool US$5 million) , a lot of brands are maximising their ad spend by rolling out online PR campaigns for their Super Bowl ads ahead of the game (or in other words, advertising their adverts).  But while sport and advertising have always gone hand-in-hand, this year, politics is entering the mix; Super Bowl Sunday is going to make for an interesting Monday morning here in Asia.

Christopher Slaughter CEO

And in case you don’t understand American football, you’re not going to understand it any better after watching “NFL 2017 – A Bad Lip Reading of the NFL”, but it might get you into the Super Bowl spirit!