CASBAA: Regulatory Overhaul Needed for Asian Pay-TV, OTT

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SINGAPORE: A new report unveiled at CASBAA’s OTT Summit finds that legacy regulatory policies governing video operators across Asia are disadvantaging local companies, creating an “unsustainable” situation.

The report, Same Same But Different? Video Policies for Asian Pay-TV and OTT, delves into regulatory systems for pay-TV and OTT operators in countries across the Asia Pacific. It found that local pay-TV companies are facing intense competition from foreign operators, both legal and illegal, due to tax burdens and regulations on content, advertising, competition and social policy.

“Regulators have an incredibly difficult task ahead of them,” said CASBAA Chief Policy Officer John Medeiros. “Root-and-branch reform is needed…. the pay-television industry environment today is radically different from what it was only five years ago, and the hard work of adapting policy instruments and practices has only gotten underway in a small number of markets.”

Medeiros continued, “Why would any media company locate a new OTT business in a heavily-regulated jurisdiction, if they can serve the market more cheaply and without compliance burdens from offshore?”

The trade body representing the interests of Asia’s multichannel industry is calling on governments across the region to review their pay-TV regulations “and determine whether existing burdens are still required given the evolution…of the television market in recent years.” It went on to say that governments should seek to “stem the growth and proliferation of illegitimate OTT services.”