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NEWS & VIEWS
January-February 2016
OTT to the fore as regional
player reaches milestone
KUALA LUMPUR – The over-
the-top (OTT) war has begun in
earnest in South-east Asia. Netflix
has continued its aggressive global
expansion with a first foray into
South-east Asia — the Internet
streaming service went online in
Singapore this January — while
regional players such as HOOQ and
iflix continue to report encourag-
ing growth.
The latter, for instance, has
announced that it has surpassed
the one-million member mark
within only six months of launch,
despite being currently available
only in Malaysia, Thailand and the
Philippines.
Explaining iflix’s success, iflix
group CEO Mark Britt told APB:
“We are passionate about emerg-
ing markets. We have a deep
understanding of them and have
focused on providing a high-
quality service with exceptional
content uniquely created for the
local consumer.
“iflix is a mass market, mobile-
optimised offering at a price that
everyone can afford. We have
developed our technology and
features specifically to address
infrastructure inconsistencies na-
tive to our markets.”
iflix group CEO Mark Britt showing
off the company’s Internet TV
service, which has surpassed the
one-million member mark within six
months of launch.
iflix offers a library of top Holly
wood, Asian regional and local TV
shows and movies, with each sub-
scription allowing users to access
the service on up to five devices.
A ‘download and watch offline’
feature allows subscribers to view
downloaded content on-the-go.
Britt also attributed iflix’s suc-
cess to the availability of digital
services via the Internet over the
past two decades, a development
that has disrupted traditional busi-
nesses and empowered consumers
in every industry, including media
and entertainment.
“On-demand services give con-
sumers control over their entertain-
ment consumption. The growing
popularity of binge watching is
one example of this fundamental
shift in [consumer] behaviour,” he
added.
Welcoming Netflix to the fray,
Britt sees this trend continuing as
other global players follow Netflix’s
footsteps in entering Asia. And for
iflix, Netflix and other like-minded
services, service localisation, ac-
cessibility and affordability will be
key differentiators that determine
their success, Britt suggested, while
quick to add that there is still a
place for traditional TV.
He explained: “Each platform
has its strengths. For general enter
tainment, on-demand gives con-
sumers the power to enjoy their
entertainment programming on
their terms, on-demand, without
restriction.
“Traditional TV, however, is still
the best option for appointment
viewing, such as news, sports and
other live competitions.”
Spectrum use still important
for broadcast services
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Dr Amal added that at WRC-
15, representatives from over
150 governments reached the
consensus that spectrum currently
used by broadcast services such
as digital terrestrial TV (DTT) and
radio microphones, remains too
important to be allocated for IMT.
For Asia-Pacific, which uti-
lises the 470-698MHz band, it was
agreed that there would be no
regional-wide IMT identification in
this band, with the exception of a
few Southern Island nations.
WRC-15 should be celebrated
as a win-win scenario for both the
broadcast and mobile industries,
according to Professor H Nwana,
executive director of the Dynamic
Spectrum Alliance (DSA), a global
organisation advocating for laws
and regulations that will lead to
more efficient and effective spec-
trum utilisation.
He pointed out that while
spectrum has been safeguarded for
terrestrial TV, WRC-15 took the de-
cision to expand the 694-790MHz
band from a regionally harmonised
band in Regions 2 and 3, to also
make this spectrum available for
mobile broadband in Region 1.
He told APB: “These digital
dividends are key for critical mobile
broadband services … [However],
Make IP workflow ‘flexible, scalable and cost-effective’
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how can they be implemented into
existing workflows?
“Finally, storage. With so much
more data being worked with and
consumed, what are broadcasters’
short-, medium- and long-term
options? How much do these op-
tions cost and how well can they be
managed, whether they are in the
cloud or on their premises?”
Fintan Mc Kiernan, CEO of
Ideal Systems for South-east Asia,
provided a simple checklist for us
to follow. Does the cloud service:
A) Save you money? B) Not
degrade your existing service?
C) Offer you more flexibility?
“If the answer to A) is yes, then
start doing some testing,” Mc
Kiernan said. “If the answers to A)
and B) are yes, then do it now. If
the answers to A), B) and C) are all
yes, then you should have done it
already!”
He was, however, quick to ac-
knowledge: “In reality, the migra-
tion of broadcast workflows and
tasks to the cloud will be more of an
evolution, rather than a revolution.”
Much in the same way as
broadcast hardware slowly migra
ted to software packages running
on standard IT hardware, a process
which Mc Kiernan sees as “not
anywhere near complete”, the
migration of broadcast workflows
from on-premise hardware to
cloud-based services will be a slow
process, he added.
Broadcasters’ priorities in 2016
will vary depending on the eco-
nomic conditions and extent of
technical developments within the
various countries in Asia-Pacific,
suggested Bjarne Pedersen, manag-
ing director, Danmon Group Asia.
With 4K/UHD TV sets now
“well within” the affordable reach
of many households, production
companies are being encouraged
to invest in 4K/UHD cameras to
ensure that their programmes have
a long commercial life, suggested
Pedersen, who added: “The HD to
4K/UHD upconverters in modern
domestic receivers deliver remark-
ably good quality so the upward
migration to 4K/UHD should be a
gentle one.”
In less developed countries
though, the priority will remain on
upgrading from analogue to digital
TV, while broadcasters make sure
they can then progress to 4K/U