2 EDITORIAL

August 2018 ( volume 35 issue 7 )

EDITORIAL managing editor Shawn Liew , shawn @ editecintl . com contributing editor ( technology ) Karl K Rossiter , karl @ editecintl . com news editor Josephine Tan , josephine @ editecintl . com

Broadcasting major sports events live has long been a lucrative business for broadcasters and pay-TV operators . Ratings go through the roof , bringing with it the leverage to sell advertisement time at a premium rate . For the latter , it would appear for now that avid sports fans are still willing to pay to watch their favourite sports , particularly football .

The recently concluded 2018 FIFA World Cup would appear to abide with tradition , with Eurodata reporting a global audience of 171 million in 20 territories watching the final between France and Croatia .

However , scratch below the surface , and a completely different script is being slowly but inexorably written . The BBC , for instance , reported record live streaming figures for the 2018 FIFA World Cup . While the BBC was reporting on the change in its audience ’ s viewing habits , UK regulatory body Ofcom also announced that , for the first time , the number of subscriptions to streaming services such as Netflix has taken those to traditional pay-TV in the UK .

Should broadcasters and pay-TV be duly concerned ? They should ; in the sense that these are more indicators that viewing habits are shifting away from traditional platforms ; they should , in the sense that audiences , encouraged by the high image resolution and quality of their mobile devices , appear to be less and less concerned about viewing content on smaller screen sizes .

Where sports and , indeed , any large-scale live broadcasts are concerned , the mitigating factor remains that is it nigh impossible to transmit all broadcast TV content over the Internet — current Internet infrastructures will simply collapse under the burden .

That , however , has not deterred the likes of Facebook and Amazon from bidding for , and

successfully winning , live streaming rights for the globally appealing English Premier League , beginning in 2019 . While sports was once the exclusive domain for traditional broadcast platforms , particularly pay-TV , this lofty position is now under threat from Facebook and Amazon who , in all likelihood , are going to offer fans the chance to stream their favourite matches live — at a fraction of the cost that current pay-TV operators are charging .

Perhaps , more instructive , were comments made by Matthew Postgate , chief technology and product officer of the BBC , at the DTG Summit in London earlier this year : “ The days when all media will be distributed over the Internet are not too far away .”

Whether this bold statement will become reality is debatable . Clearly , there is still a key role for traditional linear TV to play in today ’ s society , while it is perhaps hard to envision all public broadcasters in the world turning into video streaming service providers overnight .

However , there is a note of caution , and pragmatic realism in Postgate ’ s comments . Viewing habits have changed , and more content will continue to be streamed over the Internet and onto mobile devices . The onus is on broadcasters and pay-TV operators to act now , in re-thinking their digital strategies not only to strengthen their traditional content propositions , but also to engage their audiences in the Internet domain .

SHAWN LIEW MANAGING EDITOR

CORRESPONDENTS

■ India Shirish Nadkarni , shinads @ yahoo . co . uk

■ USA Mike Feazel , mfeazel @ gmail . com

PRODUCTION production editor Zuraini Ridzwan , zuraini @ editecintl . com junior sub-editor Eva Meango , eva @ editecintl . com senior multimedia designer Raymund Jaudian , raymund @ editecintl . com ad / office administrator Irene Lok , irene @ editecintl . com accounts manager Tan Hui Min , huimin @ editecintl . com

MARKETING chief marketing officer

Kylie Chua , kylie @ editecintl . com director - sales & marketing Jessie Tan , jessie @ editecintl . com manager - marketing Lynn Chee , lynn @ editecintl . com

CIRCULATION & PROMOTIONS circulation & promotions manager Lynn Chee , lynn @ editecintl . com

PUBLISHING publisher / editorial director Andrew Yeo , andrew @ editecintl . com

MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES

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Yang Ou

BEIJING BUNCH EXHIBITION SERVICES LTD

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Tel : + 86-10-6482 3808-106 Fax : + 86-10-6482 3670 E-mail : yangou @ bbes . com . cn

■ Japan Mikio Tsuchiya

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■ USA & Canada Gary L Rhodes SEDOR MEDIA INC

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