Industry presses for Singapore Action Against Online Piracy

A coalition of companies from the television, telecom, and cinema industries continues to press the Singapore government for action against online piracy. In a joint position paper, the companies pointed out there are many potential ways to tackle rampant illegal viewing of video content, but said mandated blocking of a relatively small number of egregious pirate websites would be a “good first step” – a cost effective measure the authorities can undertake with existing powers.

The position paper can be downloaded here.

Twin Challenges of Online Piracy

At a global conference of regulators and business execs in Singapore this week, a keynote speech by AETN All Asia Networks MD Louis Boswell described two things that have to be done to stem consumers going online for illegal downloads and streams of video material: the industry needs to continue to find new ways of delivering high quality content to consumers in the way they want to consume it, and governments need to take regulatory action to send the clear message that piracy is wrong. “At the moment many regulators in this region are simply signaling that they don’t want to fight and that is a huge mistake,” said Boswell. “The onus is on our industry to innovate and be better than pirates, but without a strong legal framework to protect our intellectual property we will fail.” Read the full text of the speech here.

Australia Opens Consultation on Copyright in the Digital Economy

Australia’s Law Reform Commission is consulting the public about digital copyright issues. The consultation paper includes a broad range of topics, including cloud computing, exceptions for libraries and others, statutory licenses and retransmission consent for FTA broadcasting.

Download the paper here

CASBAA Urges Thai Regulators to Adopt Market-Friendly Approach

CASBAA submitted views to the Thai National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) on proposed rules for licensing companies in the television business. CASBAA’s submission stressed the need for an industry-friendly licensing regime for international TV channels, and also urged tightening of provisions designed to ensure respect for intellectual property rights. CASBAA also suggested the NBTC seek over time a relaxation of 2008 legislation containing excessively strict limits on pay-TV advertising, and on foreign investment in Thai pay-TV companies.

Download here:

NBTC_Submission_and_CASBAA_Briefing_Paper (English Version)

NBTC_Submission_and_CASBAA_Briefing_Paper (Thai Version)

India Satellite Report Planned

CASBAA members can look forward to an illuminating look at supply and demand in India’s satellite services market by year-end. The Association has commissioned PwC to examine actual and potential demand for transponder space from DTH operators and others, and compare that with available capacity from Indian and foreign satellite operators. The last time CASBAA undertook such a survey five years ago, the Association foresaw a bandwidth crunch from growing demand from planned DTH services. We were right. Now, the services are real, and are being viewed in 40 million homes. To accommodate the growth, the Indian government has allowed use of some foreign-operated transponders, but CASBAA wants to see if there are additional measures that should be taken to accommodate demand in a key Indian growth sector.

Solon Survey of European Cable Communication 2011|2012

Solon(www.solonstrategy.com) publishes the largest strategy and benchmarking study on European cable operators. It shows that cable operators remain optimistic about revenue growth and see broadband, mobile and B2B as their largest opportunities. The survey is based on the feedback of C-Level executives at 14 leading European cable operators servicing 25 million customers.

Download:
Solon Survey of European Cable Communication 2011|2012

MIC plans cable TV restructuring, eliminating tens of service providers

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) is considering restructuring the cable TV market. It is expected that only three national enterprises and five local enterprises would be retained instead of 40 currently.

Three strikes regs for UK online piracy

Ofcom is planning to encourage UK internet users to download films and music legally with a new code that would require large ISPs to inform customers of allegations that their internet connection has been used to infringe copyright.

The media regulator has published a draft code for consultation that it said includes measures to help inform the public and promote lawful access to digital content.

The code would initially cover ISPs with more than 400,000 broadband-enabled fixed lines, which currently includes BT, Everything Everywhere, O2, Sky, TalkTalk Group and Virgin Media. The draft code requires ISPs to send letters to customers, at least a month apart, informing them when their account is connected to reports of suspected online copyright infringement.

Download Ofcom Consultation

Broadcasters Affected by New Chinese Copyright Amendments

Member company Paul Weiss has produced a short briefing paper on provisions of new copyright amendments enacted in China that give broadcasting companies access to statutory licenses for material included in broadcasts (usually music). Download the paper here.

Briefing Paper on the WIPO Broadcasting Treaty

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) has produced a comprehensive Q & A paper to dispel common myths about the draft WIPO Broadcasting Treaty. ABU and CASBAA are pushing for the July 2012 meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) to reach consensus on calling a Diplomatic Conference to move forward on the treaty, on the basis of a new draft proposed last year by Mexico and South Africa.

Download the briefing paper here.

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