AS IA V IDEOPULSE

THE NEWSLE T TER OF THE AS I A V IDEO I NDUSTRY ASSOC IA T ION

AUGUST 20 1 9 I S SUE 00 1

New BeginningsLOUIS BOSWELL - CEO

Greetings from the Asia Video Industry Association.  It has been a year

since we shed our Casbaa skin and evolved into AVIA. I would like to think

that we are hitting our goals of becoming a forward looking association,

embracing change and reflecting the broader video ecosystem we all

inhabit.

 

We have a clear mandate to improve the landscape of the video industry

through improving the regulatory framework in which we operate,

turning the tide against piracy and engaging our members by providing

insight through committees and conferences to discuss the opportunities

as well as the challenges we face in these disruptive times.

 

Now we need to make sure we meet our communications objectives and

do a better job of keeping our members abreast of all of our priorities and

activities.  This is one important step towards that. Welcome to the first of

what will be regular newsletters updating you on the key issues our

industry is facing, and what we, as your association, are doing about it.

THE LATEST

UPDATES ON

POL ICY

P IRACY

INS IGHT  

ALL INS IDE

Q : H O W D O Y O U P R O N O U N C E A V I A ?

A: It doesn't matter. It stands for the Asia Video Industry Association. HardA,  soft  A, even A.V.I.A. But if you're interested, the team here say it with ahard A as in "able".

W H O I S A V I A ?

Throughout 2018, in debates among the board

and in consultation with members and key

industry stakeholders, we redefined our

industry.  We are the industry that creates,

packages, markets and distributes video content

in Asia, and the ecosystem that supports it.  It

doesn’t matter whether the video is linear or on

demand, it doesn’t matter whether it is delivered

over IP or via cable or satellite, it doesn’t matter

whether a member is a content provider or

content aggregator or one of the many other parts

of our industry ecosystem such as content

security, law firm, research company, ad agency or

other. We are all part of the Asia Video Industry

Association.

W H Y D O E S I T M A T T E R ?

W H A T ' S C H A N G I N G

2019 AVIA BOARD

ELECT IONS

6 NOV 2019

NOMINAT IONS BY

EARLY OCTOBER

GREATER

DIVERS ITY I S

WELCOME

CONTACT

LOUIS@AS IAV IA .ORG

TO DISCUSS

STANDING

In the glory days of Pay TV, the industry association,

CASBAA as it was then known, was strongly

supported by its members.  Those were days of

double digit growth and while there were always

issues to deal with, times were relatively

easy.  Today, the industry is going through a life-

cycle change, and the challenges for all parts of

the industry have never been greater.  Regulators

are beginning to make decisions that could have

a profound effect on growth and

sustainability.  Piracy has infiltrated broadband

connections Asia-wide and there are fundamental

questions which need to be asked about business

models, growth, corporate cultures, skills, and the

list goes on.

Other than this newsletter which will come out every quarter, we are also

revamping our website, we will be changing our domains, and we have

opened a Singapore office.

W H Y S U P P O R T A V I A ?

If ever there is a time when an industry association is needed, that time

is now. And we need your support.  We can all go our separate ways or

we can come together to ensure that together, we have a bright and

vibrant future.  Please remember that by supporting AVIA, through

renewing your membership, encouraging other companies to join, or

buying a pass for our conferences, you are supporting the future of the

industry for all.  We are non-profit and exist only to make our industry

healthier.  If you think we can do better, tell us.  Get involved, join a

committee or run for the board.  We understand budgets are tight, none

more so than ours, but please maintain your budget to support our

industry.

We are also updating our database. We want to communicate with as many

staff of member companies as possible, not just a few senior people. This

association is for all, and even if our issues are not on your daily agenda, we

want you to know what we are doing to make the industry better for everyone.

We will also soon be providing targeted opt-out options on AVIA

correspondence.

John MedeirosCHIEF POL ICY OFF ICER

In the past six months the AVIA Policy team has carried out a broad-

ranging progamme of advocacy on various regulatory issues with

governments across Asia Pacific. We led policy missions on one or

another issue to Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines Singapore, Thailand,

and Vietnam. Our menu of submissions and written advocacy has

included Australia, India (several times), Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore,

Taiwan and Vietnam.

AVIA:

the interlocutorfor the videoindustry withgovernmentsacross the region

PO L I C Y MAT T ER S

Vietnam – the hot topic amongst many of our media members was the

revision of Decree 6, the rules governing pay-TV which the Vietnamese

authorities want to revise and expand to include online streaming

services. AVIA wrote to the Ministry of Information and Communications

and Office of the Government to raise concerns about some of the

proposed new regulatory approaches, in particular the proposed market-

closing domestic-only licensing requirements for online curated content

(OCC) providers, the requirement for a local content quota for video on

demand and the banning of advertising on foreign channels, amongst

others.

Mai Tien Dung, Minister and Chairman of the Government

Office with AVIA CEO, Louis Boswell

Tram Nguyen-Disney; Alana Triscott-Turner; Alex Long-Netflix;,

Anna Pak-Discovery; Louis Boswell-AVIA; Vu Tu Thanh-AVIA

In Northeast Asia, the National Communications Commission, (NCC) of

Taiwan has proposed to amend the definition of “first-run” or “channel-

premiere” programmes on channels in Taiwan. AVIA’s position is that it is

best left unregulated, instead allowing commercial decisions to inform

content supply. Other governments do not regulate this aspect of

programming.

In Singapore,  Louis Boswell, together

with key members from AVIA, also met

with Ministry of Law and Infocomm

Media Development Authority (IMDA) to

discuss plans for the implementation of

planned amendments to the Copyright

Act and to accelerate the provisions

regarding the sale of Illicit Streaming

Devices (ISDs). In a separate meeting,

Louis led a group of AVIA members to

impress on IMDA’s spectrum regulators

the need for care in allocating 5G

frequencies, so as not to create

unforeseen interference with satellite

transmissions.

AVIA has also led the engagement of the

Global Satellite Coalition (GSC) in

Asia.  GSC brings together satellite-

interest Associations from six

continents.  (There are satellite dishes in

Antarctica, but no Associations!)  In the

last few months, alone or with its GSC

partners, AVIA has made submissions on

satellite spectrum policy to governments

in Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and to

the ITU’s Asian affiliate, the Asia-Pacific

Telecommunity. AVIA consultants have

organised satellite innovation workshops

in Fiji (for Pacific countries), India,

Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and

Vietnam. All of this leads up to the ITU’s

World Radiocommunication Conference

19, coming up in November.

Looking forward, the policy team is

watching for signs of new regulatory

initiatives for OCC, including in Taiwanand Thailand; potential proposals to

transfer legacy broadcasting rules into

the online space are subjects of great

concern.

With regards to Digital Platforms,

in Australia, AVIA reacted to the report

of the Australian Competition and

Consumer Commission (ACCC) on its

Digital Platforms Inquiry.  AVIA

suggested that the ACCC should consider

expanding its initial Inquiry beyond the

impact of digital advertising for the

supply of news and journalistic content,

to a wider market investigation of the

operation of the online advertising

market, and to its effect on sectors

beyond those of news and journalism

(e.g. broadcast entertainment).

AVIA also noted that additionally the

Australian government should introduce

a clear liability framework to incentivise

the digital platforms to implement

effective and efficient solutions to their

copyright infringement problems.

Moving down to South Asia, India’sMinistry of Information and Broadcasting

(MIB) asked for AVIA’s thinking about a

possible new National Broadcasting

Plan.  AVIA provided views on a wide

range of issues, including ease of doing

business, content regulation, satellite

downlink policy and spectrum

allocation. MIB let us know they were

grateful for our input, and hoped for even

more in the future!   Earlier in the spring,

we also commented on  a draft National

e-Commerce Policy.  Those proposals,

issued by the Department for Promotion

of Industry and Internal Trade, included

some very strong anti-piracy actions but

also some very negative and excessively

control-oriented policies on data, and

foreign investment.   AVIA’s submission

opposed the excessive regulation, but

urged continuation with the anti-piracy

focus.

Neil GaneGENERAL MANAGER - CAP

The situation regarding piracy around the region remains critical, but I

am happy to say there is definite progress being made and CAP is at the

forefront of being the catalyst for this change.

 

The priorities continue to be Outreach, Intermediary Engagementand Enforcement as laid out below.

AVIA:

dedicated toreducing videotheft andcreating a moresustainablebusinessenvironment forestablished aswell as newvvideo companiesto innovate andgrow

P I RACY   K I L L S I N DUS TR Y

As piracy has moved online over the years, one of the handicaps has been

the lack of a physical product, and as downloads have moved to streams,

the product becomes even more transient whilst presenting no single

point of attack from a law enforcement perspective.  But we believe, and

increasingly, governments are agreeing that the online world needs to be

managed and there need to be rules.  As more and more business is done

online, the internet has to be a safe environment.  Society does not accept

blatant theft from high street stores and neither should it be accepted on

the internet.  On behalf of industry, we are urgently and actively engaging

governments and working with them to define a clear and effective

strategy to tackle the content theft crisis.

The proliferation of piracy and

especially Illicit StreamingDevices (ISDs) has seen a huge

impact on legal subscription

services. There is a hole and it

needs plugging.

The Malaysian Minister of Communications and

Multimedia Malaysia, YB Tuan Gobind Singh Deo

The good news is we are seeing progress on this

all around the region.  In Indonesia we have

helped form the Video Coalition of Indonesia

(VCI) so that both local and international players

can work with Kominfo. Through this

relationship we are seeing faster turn-around

times and more effective site blocking. Since

May 2019 the VCI have referred over 200 piracy

websites, all of which have been blocked.

In the Philippines two separate bills are being

proposed to deal with online infringements and

in Taiwan an amendment bill was passed into

the Copyright law in April after a second and final

reading by the Legislative Yuan’s General

Assembly.  The new law imposes financial

penalties and up to two years imprisonment for

those who “benefit from providing access to

infringing content through the internet”. CAP are

also an active partner of Globe’s award winning

“Play It Right” consumer outreach campaign. 

Upcoming Bangkok Anti-Piracy Summit

In Malaysia, together with MCMC, we hosted the KL Digital Anti-Piracy Summit, attended by 250 guests,

over 50 media outlets and participation by the Minister of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia,

YB Tuan Gobind Singh Deo.  The result of this has been a much greater focus on the piracy issue by the

Malaysian government and a streamlining and acceleration of the site-blocking apparatus.

In Thailand we are planning a similar such summit

on August 22, co-hosted with the Thai Department

of Intellectual Property, the Ministry of

Commerce  and True Visions. 

In addition, AVIA has been hosting dialogues

between CAP Steering Committee members and

Google to understand what measures Google are

already taking and for them to hear industry

concerns and have a constructive dialogue about

what more can be done.

April 2019

In Singapore, through the IMDA, we are now

working with all IT Exhibitions to institute a zero

tolerance policy on sellers of ISDs.  Through our

enforcement action and outreach efforts, we have

seen sales at these events fall off a cliff. The recent

Singapore Copyright Review Report makes it clear

that their policy position is to prevent the

commercial gains derived from providing access to

commercial content from unauthorized sources.

I N S I GH T AS I A

0

AVIA:

Bringing theindustry together to shine a light ontrends anddevelopmentsthroughconferences,committees andreports

Guntur S. Siboro-Hooq; Jason Monteiro-iflix; Christophe Hochart-OONA; Crispin Tristram-Telkomsel;

Varun Mehta-Viu; Greg Armshaw-Brightcove 

MPA's Aravind Venugopal and Brightcove's Rahda Raman teeing up the OTT Summit

AVIA holds conferences, seminars and webinars to bring the industry

together in a non-partisan environment to discuss issues and topics that

matter.  It has been a busy year on that front with the OTT Summit2019 held in Singapore in February, looking at all aspects of streaming

video, from different ways to monetise to video streaming optimization

and data & analytics.

In Indonesia in View in March, there was great optimism about the

future of curated VOD services but the growing investment in local

content was threatened by rampant piracy.

 The Future of Video in India looks strong

as growth across all sectors was predicted

at our conference held in Mumbai on 2

April. And while TV may be growing,

streaming video services are exploding with

the lowest mobile data costs in the world

and enormous growth of smart phone

adoption still to happen.  Speakers

throughout the day agreed we are on the

cusp of an enormous wave of digital growth

in South Asia.

Nikhil Narendran-TriLegal;  Gaurav Gandhi-Amazon Prime

Video India;  Issac M. John-Discovery;Akash Banerji-

Viacom18;  Tarun Katial-Zee5

Conferences & Events

On a smaller scale, we have increased the number of webinars we conduct and recent examples

include a session with Ros Lynch, the UKIPO Copyright and IP Enforcement Director, talking

engagingly about their perspective on ISD enforcement and piracy issues across Asia. Equally, 

Richard Womersley, Director Spectrum Services, LS telcom, provided an informative and accessible

assessment of IMT spectrum use in Asia, and what it says about 5G and satellite services.

The Satellite Industry Forum held in June

at the Four Seasons Hotel in Singapore

examined how constant innovation was the

best way to mitigate the constant disruption

the industry is facing, but there was growing

optimism that the future looked brighter

than perhaps just 12 months ago. The

spectrum wars are set to continue, however,

with incumbent users fighting to protect

C-Band in Asia from being allocated to 5G.

Jim Simpson-Saturn Satellite Networks; Barry Matsumori-Bridgesat;

Wesley Wong-Facebook; David Mitlyng-SpeQtral; Suwit

Pruckwattananon-mu Space; Christopher Baugh-NSR

Committees:

O T T C O M M I T T E E

R E G U L A T O R Y & A N T I - P I R A C Y C O M M I T T E E

R E S E A R C H C O M M I T T E E

S A T E L L I T E I N D U S T R Y C O M M I T T E E

W I R E L E S S A C T I O N G R O U P

T E C H N O L O G Y A D V I S O R Y G R O U P

A S I A V I D E O I N D U S T R Y N E X T C O M M I T T E E

The Committee structure of the association is vital ly important.     It creates the opportunity

for members to gather around specific industry issues and it gives everyone a voice on the

subject .  

The last two committees on the list have been dormant so it would be good to hear from members if

they are keen to get them going again, and if people want to be more actively involved.  

For committees to be successful, we need passionate and dedicated co-chairs who can drive the

committees forward. Committees are of the members and for the members.  If you are interested in

being more involved, please get in touch.

We are also open to ideas for new committees and are currently exploring the possibility of the two

concepts below. We want to hear from you and we want you to get involved. Let us know your

thoughts.

Current AVIAcommittees:

We are pleased to let you know that our latest report - Indonesiain View is now ready.   This report is for members only. To request

your copy, please email us or log in to the members area of the

website.

Upcoming reports will be Malaysia in View, The State of theVideo Industry 2019, and the Asia Video Industry Report 2020.

The Committee structure of for members to gather

around specific industry issues and it gives everyone a

voice on the subject .  

Reports:

New Members:

AVIA is only as strong as its members. We want to appeal to all parts of the video ecosystem

and we are delighted that in 2019 we have been joined by the following companies:

Upcoming:

We want to hear from you. Please get in touch and let us know what you think:

Contact Us:

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