27 September 2012
With markets, providers and consumers racing to deliver multichannel video anywhere, anytime and on any device – regulatory frameworks are not keeping up.
However, a new CASBAA study, A Tilted Playing Field: Asia-Pacific Pay-TV and OTT, provides a comprehensive review of the gulf between pay-TV guidelines and current over-the-top (OTT) television regulations.
The findings show governments imposing heavy burdens on traditional multichannel TV content delivery systems (cable TV, DTH, “walled garden” IPTV, etc.) which must compete with largely unregulated internet-based TV services including “catch-up” TV, live streaming, “TV Everywhere” offerings, video-on-demand streaming and user-generated uploads.
Arguably, however, the most dangerous challenge comes from providers of illegal, unauthorized offshore OTT services. “The pirate video transmission business is the most international, least law-abiding, and lowest taxpaying of any segment of the global media business,” said John Medeiros, Chief Policy Officer, CASBAA
“The pirate model is now dominating the commercial conversation. Steps must be taken to block growth of the illegitimate OTT sector – to prevent offshore pirate video operators from continuing to grow business models based on misuse and theft of the legitimate industries’ content.”
The report draws attention to the difficult task facing traditional pay-TV operators in the face of competitive challengers – legal as well as pirate – that don’t face the same burdens from government regulation. Across the 14 markets** covered by the CASBAA study, most Asian jurisdictions’ OTT services remain subject only to relatively loose regulations applied to internet services.
Governments which allow this “tilted playing field and unhealthy competitive environment to persist will see their own creative industries damaged, local broadcasters weakened, and investment in networks and content impaired,“ added Marcel Fenez, Chairman of CASBAA.
A Tilted Playing Field is available for download at www.casbaa.com.
26 September 2012
Julian Assange will address the 67th United Nations General Assembly, currently in session in New York, from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London via live transmission provided by RT. The speech will be carried live by RT on the network’s English and Spanish channels around the world.
The world-famous cyber-activist and Wikileaks co-founder will be one of the feature speakers at the exclusive event, Strengthening the International Human Rights: The Diplomatic Asylum. Via live video transmission Assange will debate the legitimacy and applicability of the Diplomatic Asylum from a legal and a human rights perspective with other distinguished panelists, Mr. Ricardo Patino, Foreign Affairs Minister of Ecuador and Mr. Baher Azmy, Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, in front of the participants of the 67th UN General Assembly.
The exclusive event will take place at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Wednesday, September 26, from 6:30 to 8:30pm EST (2:30-4:40am Moscow time) and will be broadcast live by RT in English and Spanish, as well as on RT’s YouTube channel. The live international transmission has been organized and set up by RT at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where Assange is currently receiving asylum in his fight to avoid extradition from the United Kingdom to Sweden.
RT is a global international news network that broadcasts in English, Arabic and Spanish from its studios in Moscow and Washington, DC, and is available to 550 million viewers in more than 100 countries worldwide. RT became the first TV news channel in the world to pass 750 million views on YouTube and is the first Russian TV channel to receive two nominations for the prestigious International Emmy awards.
24 September 2012
The Eurosport Group and FISU (International University Sports Federation) announce they have signed a six-year agreement, starting in September 2012.
This long-term partnership will give the Summer and Winter Universiades – FISU’s highly successful global multi-sport events – comprehensive television coverage on an international basis across Eurosport’s unrivalled pan-European network.
Eurosport will also produce a monthly TV show called CAMPUS dedicated to the World University Championship events and FISU’s global commitment to excellence in body and mind.
The multi-media partnership is completed with the creation of a dedicated university sports section on Eurosport.com which will include the latest results, sport news and videos about the World University Championships and Universiade events. This section will be launched initially in English and French by end of September 2012.
Eurosport has been the home of the Olympic Games and Olympic sports for over 20 years and will bring this knowledge and expertise of multi-sport events to showcase and promote the Universiades.
Eurosport and Eurosport 2 will broadcast 60 hours in HD for each Summer Universiade and 40 hours in HD for each Winter Universiade.
The Summer and Winter Universiades, held every two years, gather student athletes aged 17-28 and are second only to the Olympic Games in terms of number of participating athletes and countries represented.*
The Universiades have proven to showcase future stars who have gone on to perform at World Championship and Olympic level. As an example Australian swimmer Cate Campbell, a Gold medal winner in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay at the 2011 Universiade, became Olympic Champion at the same event in the London 2012 Games.
The deal with FISU includes TV broadcast in Europe of:
– the 27th, 28th and 29th Summer Universiades, held in Kazan, Russia on 6-17 July 2013, Gwanju, Korea on 3-14 July 2015 and Taipei, Chinese Taipei on 19-30 August 2017
– the 26th, 27th and 28th Winter Universiades, taking place in Trentino, Italy on 11-21 December 2013, Granada, Spain in 2015 and Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2017.
CAMPUS will be a 26-minute TV show, broadcast on a monthly basis until December 2017.
The programme will cover the World University Championships, organised by FISU and follow preparations for the Universiades, feature profiles and interviews with the Universiade athletes and explain FISU’s values and university spirit.
CAMPUS goes on air for the first time on Eurosport on 26 September at 21:00 CET. It will include a special focus on the FISU Gala inKazan on 22 September.
FISU President Claude-Louis Gallien commented: “I am extremely pleased that FISU has signed a multi-year partnership with Eurosport for our upcoming events. Like FISU, which strives for Excellence on the academic campus and on the sports field, Eurosport has been pursuing excellence in bringing the major international sports events in the homes of many sports fans. I am confident that with the help of Eurosport the International University Sport Movement will continue to grow in popularity worldwide.”
Laurent-Eric Le Lay, Eurosport Chairman & CEO said: “We are delighted to have this opportunity to bring Eurosport’s unrivalled expertise and multi-media credentials to this long-term partnership with FISU, which will enable fans to follow the upcoming athletes of the future. We are committed to being the first to showcase the best young rising stars in sport as we do with football for example with the NextGen Series and other international youth competitions. We are looking forward to developing a strong relationship with FISU which will give a platform to its highly respected events, commercial partners and key messages. Eurosport is committed to ensuring action from the Universiades and its associated events are accessible to sports fans acrossEurope.”
24 September 2012
The World Teleport Association today released a new white paper, Teleports in a Gigabit World, exploring how the continuing evolution of the Ka-band market and the technology race for gigabit throughput in C- and Ku-band are most likely to affect service providers. Based on interviews with senior executives of teleport, satellite and media companies, the report examines threats and potential opportunities and offers advice on what service providers can do today to defend against the downside as well as seize the upside.
High throughput satellite (HTS), a term coined in 2007 by research firm NSR, has pretty much been synonymous with the Ka-band of frequencies. But innovations in modem technology and satellite architecture are taking HTS mainstream, with big implications for the delivery of services to customers in media, government, military, oil & gas, mining, maritime and other markets.
WTA Executive Director and report author Robert Bell said, “In the short-term, service providers will implement HTS technologies as customer contracts renew and satellite leases come due. They will naturally include HTS in the options they offer to customers, and some customers will take the plunge. But those near-term opportunities should not blind service providers to the revolutionary impact of HTS on their business and the entire industry. Entry into the Gigabit World may be the biggest transition in the history of satellite.”
The report also lays out a specific steps providers should take to position their companies for the future:
- Bet on Change. In both the short and long terms, HTS will create winners and losers in the market, and service providers need to think through what it takes to be on the winning side.
- Prepare to Sell New Applications to New Customers. If the prophets of HTS revolution are correct, the satellite services business may well see its best growth opportunities in completely new lines of business. That is a major challenge to any company. You will need to stay alert to opportunities that might have seemed absurd in the past. They may still be absurd now, but they might just be a door opening to a new market.
- Prepare to Compete with New Players. As HTS continues to evolve, satellite service providers are likely to compete with companies they have never faced before. Succeeding in these markets may require teleport operators to do something they have typically shied away from: investing in their own proprietary solutions. And creating your own technology solutions may require very different skills in business analysis, planning and operations.
Teleports in a Gigabit World is available free to WTA members from the World Teleport Association website. Non-members may purchase a copy of the report from the site. WTA will provide a free copy of the report to accredited members of the press.
About World Teleport Association
Since 1985, the World Teleport Association (www.worldteleport.org) has focused on improving the business of satellite communications from the ground up. At the core of its membership are the world’s most innovative operators of teleports, from independents to multinationals, niche service providers to global carriers. WTA is dedicated to advocating for the interests of teleport operators in the global telecommunications market and promoting excellence in teleport business practice, technology and operations.
20 September 2012
Brazil‘s leading broadcaster joins MyGlobeTV’s lineup of international and thematic content
TV Globo International has signed an agreement with GlobeCast, a leading provider of media management and global content delivery services, to join its MyGlobeTV platform.
MyGlobeTV is a television bouquet that brings international and thematic audiovisual content directly to subscribers in theUnited States. In contrast to WorldTV, GlobeCast’s direct-to-home satellite offering, with MyGlobeTV all viewers need is a broadband Internet connection and a MyGlobeTV set-top box; no satellite dish is required.
Launched in July, MyGlobeTV is currently composed of 16 Romanian channels and there are plans to rapidly expand the lineup to include further communities, attracting a large variety of niche audience groups.
“We’re very pleased to welcome TV Globo to our MyGlobeTV platform. GlobeCast Americas launched MyGlobeTV to provide an innovative, user-friendly, and unique way for communities of viewers in theAmericasto access their content,” said GlobeCast Americas CEO Lisa Coelho. “With MyGlobeTV, the significant and growing community of Brazilians and Portuguese speakers in the US and indeed any viewers with a broadband connection, will be able to watch TV Globo International and follow the news in real time — as well as live sports, soap operas, miniseries, children’s programs, and entertainment.”
“We are very happy with this new partnership,” said Raphael Correa Netto, Head of International Sales at TV Globo. “Now, more Brazilians and Portuguese speakers in theUnited Stateswill be able to watch Globo´s programs delivered via broadband. This system gives more mobility so that fans of our telenovelas, documentaries, and entertainment shows can follow their favorite programs.”
18 September 2012
The Board of Supervisors of Radio Netherlands Worldwide has appointed William Valkenburg (47) editor-in-chief as of 1 January 2013. Mr Valkenburg will set out the new course for the organisation with the recently appointed director general Robert Zaal. RNW will focus on free speech in countries where press freedom is limited and William Valkenburg will take responsibility for journalism within the organisation, he succeeds Rik Rensen.
Chairman of the Supervisory Board Bernard Bot is pleased with the appointment of Mr Valkenburg: “The organisation is now ready for a new future. His extensive experience of journalism and journalistic innovation, new media and change processes makes William is the right man at the right time.”
William Valkenburg: “The new organisation faces the challenge of reaching young people in the most difficult countries and giving them a taste of new media freedom. The opportunities are greater than ever before. I am looking forward to seeking original and creative ways to fulfil this brief with our experienced journalists and producers.”
For the last 25 years, Mr Valkenburg has worked as a journalist and manager at commercial and public broadcasting stations Veronica, VARA and NOS/NPO. His past functions include editor-in-chief of consumer programme Kassa and he is founder of the internet service Uitzending Gemist, which enables people to watch TV programmes they have missed online. Up until the beginning of the year William Valkenburg was director general of Internet & Innovatie at the Netherlands Public Broadcasting organisation (NPO). He is currently involved in innovation and change projects in the healthcare sector.
As of 2013, Radio Netherlands Worldwide’s main focus will be on Africa and the Arab World, as well as countries like China,Cuba and Venezuela.
