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Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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| Fox just launched its Fox+ streaming service in Singapore after its debut in the Philippines in March. The service will initially be available to Singtel customers with Starhub to follow soon. A 30-day free trial is also available (through the Android app anyways) for anyone. It looks very slick, but haven’t yet figured out how to cast it to my TV. Pricing can start as low as US$10/month and go up to as high at $18, depending on existing plan and introductory offer. This compares to US $7.75/month in the Philippines. 11,000+ hours of programming with live sports makes this a very exciting and ambitious offering. Looking forward to diving into it…after I punch out for the day. |
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John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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| Thailand’s NBTC announced that it would set up a subcommittee to implement regulation of OTT operators. One suspects this may have more to do with what one Thai newspaper called the trend toward “tightening regulation of all Thai Media.” The Bangkok Post said it is all about “out of control” OTT services. And there is certainly a control orientation in the Thai government these days. |
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Kevin Jennings
Vice President
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| Meanwhile, plans to curb journalists and news outlets across the kingdom edged a little closer this week as the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) voted to endorse the “media reform bill”, which would impose restrictions on TV News channels and print media journalists. According to The Nation, concerns have been raised by media professionals, consumer groups and overseas watchdogs while the newspaper openly denounced the authoritarian law, which it says takes Thailand back decades. |
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Mark Lay
Vice President, Singapore
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| During APOS last week, Mark Britt of iflix made the point (a couple times) that his biggest competition is piracy…with recent reports saying Singapore is in the top 10. Bloomberg has an article this week that states that “Subscription-based business models in content distribution is making piracy pointless” and refers the recent Orange is the New Black fifth season leak. This fantastic chart of the “Comeback” of the music industry is promising and could show us what’s in store for the video business under subscription models. Fox+’s recent launch, combined with other services, will help pave the way. |
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John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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| Elsewhere, in Australia, another blow against a different sort or piracy, with the Federal Court ordering ISPs to shut off access to the website KickassTorrents. It’s not the first torrent site to be blocked in Oz (several others were blocked late last year); here’s hoping it’s not the last! |
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Jane Buckthought
Advertising Consultant
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| Investment in digital and online advertising is set to exceed television in two Asian markets, Hong Kong and Taiwan, in 2017. According to WPP media company GroupM’s annual Interaction Report, TV still remains king across Asian markets, with digital only reigning supreme in China. The report, which examined digital advertising growth forecasts in 46 markets, said TV still accounted for the majority of adspend 2016 at 42 per cent. |
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Kevin Jennings
Vice President
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| India’s TAM service provider BARC has announced that from July it will no longer monitor analogue homes across most of the country, with the exception of those homes in the state of Tamil Nadu, which has been slower to force the pace of change compared to other regions. Currently vast swathes of homes across India are thought to still be able to receive analogue signals and the move to drop reporting will push operators and channels to focus on switching to digital after the MIB ordered the switch off of analogue signals in March. BARC have said that their sample homes is also set to increase from 20,000 to 30,000, with a government mandate to increase the number to 50,000 by the year 2020. |
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John Medeiros
Chief Policy Officer
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| Opposite trends on copyright: The EU Court of Justice rendered a very interesting advisory opinion, which may make it possible to close down more ISD retail operations. At the same time, across the Atlantic in Mexico, the Supreme court decided no blocking action against pirate websites could be taken, as they might also host some legitimate content. |
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Kevin Jennings
Vice President
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| This week Hulu’s CEO Mike Hopkins announced the launch of Hulu’s brand new live TV streaming beta service in the US, along with what it describes as its ground-breaking new user experience with the streaming-plus-live combination that Hulu is hoping will set it apart from its competitors Viewers. who subscribe to the beta plan can enjoy live and on demand programming from more than 50 popular sports, news, entertainment and kids’ channels as well as the streaming library all for just shy of US$40. The rather imaginative name for the service is Hulu With Live TV. It says what it does on the box, so can’t fault them there. |
