Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending Aug 8th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!
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John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
Six months ago, in our “Digital, Legal and Anywhere” report on Australia, CASBAA and law firm Olswang observed that one of the problems in the piracy landscape there (and elsewhere) is that consumers are often unaware of how to access legitimate digital content. The Australian content industries reocognized we made a good point, and they have now taken up this challenge. A coalition of Aussie groups have developed an attractive and easy-to-use website to help lead consumers to legal content supplies online (both music and video). The site directs visitors to information about different services, which can be clicked directly to explore and enjoy. The official launch press release can be found here. |
Christopher SlaughterCEO |
I’m not a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers in US major league baseball, although they’ve been having a great year (while my Colorado Rockies are in the toilet). No, what I’ve been watching is the months-long dispute between Time Warner Cable and Direct TV over the Dodgers TV channel, SportsNet LA. While the altercation might not exactly be the turning point for the cable business some are calling it, it’s definitely a reminder of the importance of sports to the Pay TV industry.
We’ll be presenting a panel on sports at this year’s CASBAA Convention (and it will cover more than just BPL rights!), but before then Sports Matters will be covering all aspects of the world of sport in Singapore next month, 17-18 September. |
Anjan MitraExecutive Director, India |
Court-ordered site blocking in India continues to develop, with a court approving an application by Star TV to require blocking of 107 websites engaged in transmission of a cricket tournament licensed to Star. |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
Thailand’s principal regulator has asked the military government to set up a special committee to consider convergence issues. Reading between the lines, one might be tempted to think this is a play for bureaucratic authority vis-à-vis other agencies/Ministries. But some of the issues proposed for consideration are very real-world ones, like for example the stark differences in content regulation between licensed TV and internet TV. One likes to hope that the committee might consider intellectual property issues as well… |
Jane BuckthoughtAdvertising Consultant |
Global Ad-spend is expected to increase by 5.8% this year and 5% next year in the 13 countries covered in the latest Consensus Ad Forecast from Warc. Positive results from India up 11.3% and in China up 11.1%. Internet is growing quickly up 16.4% and TV with 5.3%. |
Michael SteelRegulatory Assistant |
The Aussie debate on which way to take copyright (more enforcement or more loopholes) continues to rage. This column is an interesting contribution, from a guy who’s in the music (not the video) industry. But his points are supremely relevant. He notes that services like Spotify and Pandora have brought instant availability of music content to consumers throughout Australia… but “for Australian artists, making music available this way has not stopped file sharing of songs — in fact, it seems to have encouraged the belief that music should be free all the time… how do you expect artists to get paid for their work, which is seemingly valued by those who want to listen to it?” |
John MedeirosChief Policy Officer |
Some people might think this approach to ending piracy is a little extreme. I guess throttling a pirate’s internet connection is probably more socially acceptable, eh? |
Godfrey ChanMember Relations & Marketing Executive |
The Director Isn’t Done Yet: An Interview With Steven Soderbergh, talking about his views of moving on from movie industry to television. |