Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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There’s a cottage industry that has built up flogging rumours about secrecy-obsessed Apple; this week, it’s been thrown into a tizzy by Variety’s scoop that Apple is considering a move into original content. Such a juicy bit of gossip was too good to pass up, so of course, everybody else in media started chasing the story The rumour mill had already been buzzing over the anticipated re-launch of the Apple TV box; starting with invitations being sent for a bigger-than-usual event on 09 September. But regardless of whether there’s a new remote controller to get the fan-boys drooling, the much-talked-about streaming service could still be many months away — as usual, an Apple representative was not available for comment. |
Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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Another Apple-related furore: the imminent release of iOS 9 will include ad-blocking technology in the mobile browser, and given the huge base of iPhones out there, publishers are understandably freaking out. To be fair, though, some of these publishers have been essentially scamming mobile users to increase the number of ads served, and in the process, driving more people to use ad blockers to speed up their browser-loading. And even though some contrarian observers think that ad-blocking should be good news for publishers, most are warning that there will be blood. |
John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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Here’s an interesting little tidbit: The operator of pirate movie sites in Northern Ireland made £300,000 over several years from ads posted on his site. He was prosecuted and pleaded guilty, but his lawyer asked the court why advertising agencies that provided the cash had not been prosecuted? Said the lawyer “they entered into agreements that if anyone visited the site they would pay, even though from a cursory view of the site it would be apparent this was facilitating criminal offences.” There’s a moral to this story… dodgy ad agencies are not immune to legal consequences. |
Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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For those of you that lean “geek” the technology war for the next video streaming codecs are hotting up: Inside Google’s master plan for faster, sharper streaming video. What’s at stake is a whole bunch of royalties (get this: one codec is demanding payments for streaming video of 0.5 percent of all revenue derived from the encoded video). The market reacted and now Microsoft, Google, Amazon, others, aim for royalty-free video codecs. These new codecs will also bring bandwidth savings which will be required as 4K gets rolled out. And speaking of 4K, it looks like Netflix’s 4K Breaking Bad stream has been hacked and is available on the torrent sites. As the file is almost 18 GB, only seriously equipped pirates may be interested. |
Anjan Mitra
Executive Director, India
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In a rare instance the Indian government has sent out a strong message to the stakeholders. ‘Sort out your internal problems and misgivings’ is what MIB has told the MSOs, LCOs and content owners on digital rollout in India, adding that there would be no further extension of the deadline for third phase. If only such messages can go out more often with such clarity. But industry players insist shortage of STBs and lack of awareness plagues implementation. |
Kevin Jennings
Programme Director
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A month before its scheduled launch in Spain, Netflix has announced an agreement with Vodafone. From the moment it launches, the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platform will be available on the TiVo-powered Vodafone TV. Through the deal, the telco intends to establish one of the cornerstones of its new TV-based project in Spain, following its acquisition of cable operator ONO, and aims to compete directly with Telefónica in the pay-TV arena. But it’s Vodafone, not Netflix, that’s the company worth keeping an eye on as it moves into position as the dark horse in the OTT race. |
Jane Buckthought
Advertising Consultant
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GroupM now believes that total global spending growth for the year will be 4% — down from the 4.9% (to $538 billion) the firm had forecast earlier. Spending in Brazil, Russia, China and Greece are also expected to be lower than originally thought. TV’s share of spending is expected to drop 1.5 percentage points to 43% on a global basis this year, Smith said. By comparison, 20% of net new growth will come from digital. |
John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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A couple of weeks ago, I commented on the hard-line lobbying tactics of Facebook in India. Now an Indian media commentator picked up the same line, noting that comments Facebook submitted in “support” of its Internet.org initiative included comments like “Everybody should be preveleged”, “This wilk help our vj,” “free kro net” and even “H’lo Pooja.” Very thoughtful people, those internauts… and very honest broker, that Facebook… |
Kevin Jennings
Programme Director
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The first time he said it, it was all over the headlines, but now FX Networks chief Jon Landgraf has taken his message to Edinburgh, telling the International TV Festival that there’s just too much TV these days. Which, of course, set off the headline-fest all over again… but we’ll spare you the complete index. Meantime, making the rounds with Landgraf’s “Peak TV” trope is the “Binge-watching Is Bad” meme, which has also been getting another airing lately; but count on HuffPo to combine both ideas. |
Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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A couple developments with Hulu this week. Rumors were that one of the reasons that Hulu was created was to keep the ad sales dream alive as viewers shifted to streaming, on-demand, ad free platforms (OK, Netflix). They have now decided to have their cake and eat it too with a commercial free option costing $12 per month. For the punter the question may come down to “what is 130 hours of my life worth“, as it’s estimated that Netflix viewers save this every year. Also this week there has been a shift of programming between these two big streamers as Epix Movies Are Leaving Netflix, Coming to Hulu. |
Kevin Jennings
Programme Director
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Ericsson has issued its 2015 ConsumerLab TV & Media report, confirming a lot of the trends we’ve been talking about lately. Among them, the report claims more than a third of TV & video viewing is done on-demand and as many as 61% of those surveyed watch video on smartphones. A bit worryingly, teenagers are doing most of their viewing on smartphones, laptops, or tablets, not TV sets, although linear TV does still have steady audiences in other demographics. |
Christopher Slaughter
CEO
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Actor Robert DeNiro gave the commencement speech at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts this past weekend, in which he summed up the graduates’ prospects succinctly: “You made it… and you’re f*cked.” That sounds harsh, but it was actually a pretty funny and uplifting speech, and if you’ve got a spare fifteen minutes or so, it’s worth the watch. |
