Asia-Pacific Broadcasting (APB) July 2016 • Volume 33, Issue 6

NEWS & VIEWS July 2016 WATCH OUT FOR IT IN 7 OCTOBER 2016 Stay ahead of the niche, not the mass market To participate in this report, please contact: [email protected] www.apb-news.com NEWS & VIEWS 6 WORLD IN BRIEF Mediacorp adopts HbbTV SINGAPORE – Mediacorp has launched the Toggle Red Button for its OTT Toggle service. Based on HbbTV, this brings together live broadcast TV and Toggle’s VoD services into a single environment. Mediacorp is said to be the first broadcaster in South-east Asia to deploy HbbTV technology, which rides on its DVB-T2 network. Global IP traffic to rise threefold by 2020 SAN FRANCISCO – By 2020, global IP traffic will reach 2.3ZB per year, or 194EB per month, according to a new report from Cisco. Global IP traffic will increase nearly threefold over the next five years, and will have increased nearly 100-fold from 2005 to 2020. Overall, IP traffic will grow at a CAGR of 22% from 2015 to 2020. Global satellite revenues grow despite challenges WASHINGTON – While the world economy remains sluggish, the Satellite Industry Association (SIA) reported world satellite industry revenues grew at 3% in 2015. Globally, 2015 revenues for the industry totalled US$208 billion, up from about $203 billion in 2014. Growth was led by the satellite services segment, with satellite broadband and earth observation revenues both up by 10% over the previous year. CREATION 14 MANAGEMENT 18 DISTRIBUTION | JULY 2016 22 Digital transformation is shaping the future by shawn liew SINGAPORE – Digital transformation is irrevocably altering how we interact with one another, how business is conducted, and perhaps most critically, how consumer behaviour is shaped. Technological advancements today are exponential, and literally everything and everyone are connected, said Gerd Leonhard, futurist, advisor, author and filmmaker. Dubbed as “one of the leading media futurists in the world”, Leonhard presented a Visionary Address at last month’s Broadcast­ Asia2016 and CommunicAsia­2016. For the broadcast and media industries, a new age of “broadbanding” has arrived. He explained: “What we are seeing today is a convergence of broadband with traditional broadcasting. “Broadcast and broadband are ❝Broadcast and broadband are coming together to create overthe-top (OTT) and live, on-demand content.❞ — Gerd Leonhard, Futurist, Advisor, Author and Filmmaker coming together to create overthe-top (OTT) and live, on-demand content.” Along with this convergence comes more control for today’s discerning consumers. “The idea of being able to control consumer behaviour is ending,” said Leonhard, citing the example of the music industry, where content today is “very cheap”, bordering on being free. “The music industry is not selling the music anymore, it is selling the experiences surrounding the music,” he explained. The same scenario is beginning to apply for movies and TV shows, suggested Leonhard. “When you have potentially six billion people connected to the Internet, the cost of content will be very, very low. “The price point per unit will become cheaper and cheaper.” However, he warned that one 88 | VOLUME 33 X-PLATFORM | ISSUE 6 24 Mastering the art of haiku on NHK World. Immerse yourself in Japanese poetry TOKYO – NHK World is broadcasting Haiku Masters for the global audience. An interactive programme, it is currently featuring Photo Haiku, a combination of an English three-line poem and a photograph. Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry, where each haiku consists of three lines. The first and last lines of a haiku have five syllables, while the middle line has seven syllables. Each episode is set in a region of Japan that has particular haiku associations. For instance, two episodes are filmed in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, on the western part of Japan, a locale that has given birth to many modern haiku poets, including Shiki Masaoka and Kyoshi Takahama. ‘Go with the flow and embrace emerging technologies’ SINGAPORE – The winds of change are sweeping through the broadcast and media industries. Are traditional broadcasters able to withstand the impending storm created by digital disruption — a tsunami that will flatten the landscape and bring in its wake a media war involving not only telcos but also on-demand video service providers such as Netflix? What can broadcasters do to brace them- selves against the turbulence that will change the face of broadcasting forever? The advice from three systems integrators interviewed at BroadcastAsia2016 is ‘to go with the flow and embrace emerging technologies’. Embracing new technologies and innovations will be a positive first step forward, said Aale Raza, managing director of systems integrator Whiteway Systems. “It is high time the industry embraces HDR. “The industry has been talking about resolutions for a long time — from SD to HD and now to 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) — while neglecting aspects such as colour gamut and high dynamic range (HDR),” said Raza, adding that organisations such as the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) should push hard for standardisation for 88 s e et hef ut ur eofbr oa dc a s t www. i de a l s y s . c om