Lack of OTT Regulation Creating Challenges for Pay TV in Asia

HONG KONG: A new study from the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) points to a significant discrepancy between regulations placed on traditional pay-TV providers as compared with the new crop of OTT providers and calls for measures to "block growth of the illegitimate OTT sector."

The trade body for Asia’s pay-TV industry notes in its study, A Tilted Playing Field: Asia-Pacific Pay-TV and OTT, that governments are imposing "heavy burdens" on traditional multichannel operators, whereas Internet-based content services are "largely unregulated." The greatest threat, CASBAA says, comes from 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 at 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.”

Marcel Fenez, chairman of CASBAA, notes that if online content services continue to be subject to "loose" regulations while traditional operators are heavily regulated, an "unhealthy competitive environment" will result in creative industries being damaged, local broadcasters weakened, "and investment in networks and content impaired."