Casbaa, the association for the Asian video industry, has released their review of OTT and regulatory policies for the video industry around Asia.
Based on a year-long study of legal frameworks and government policies in 17 Asian markets, and using the UK and USA for comparisons, Casbaa has examined key issues in regulation of the payTV and online video industry.
Casbaa released a booklet entitled "OTT TV Policies in Asia," which focuses on policies for professional, curated Over-the-Top (OTT) services[1]. In parallel, Casbaa also announced that more detailed matrices looking at a broad range of policy issues for traditional payTV and OTT are available online, for members only, at www.casbaa.com/rfg. Together, these publications provide an in-depth picture of the diversity of regulatory approaches prevailing across Asia.
Speaking at the launch event last night, Louis Boswell, CEO of Casbaa, stated that Casbaa is providing a unique resource through this study and the accompanying online database. As OTT continues to grow around the region, governments continue to look at how and if they need to regulate it. It is essential for any content provider in the OTT space to understand these dynamics and, as the video industry association for the Asian industries, it is Casbaa's job to keep the industry updated.
The new publication follows on from the regulatory review entitled "Same, Same But Different," that was released in 2015. They analyze key issues such as governance, copyright protection, content regulation and license restrictions. For OTT regulation, written and unwritten policies are in substantial states of flux and attracting much high level political interest with many governments talking about "how" to regulate, not "whether" to regulate.
Casbaa continues to engage with governments to advocate for light-touch regulation, for new and more traditional video services.
Executive Comment
According to Chief Policy Officer John Medeiros, it will take time and effort to persuade Asian governments to move beyond their legacy regulatory approaches for video. Casbaa aims to help the association's members navigate the changes in what still remains an unclear operating environment.
[1] The book "OTT TV Policies in Asia" is freely available for download on the Casbaa website and can be found at
www.casbaa.com/resources/casbaa-publications/public-report
