CASBAA’s study says governments in the region are imposing heavy burdens on traditional multichannel TV content delivery systems (cable TV, DTH, “walled garden” IPTV, etc.) which must compete with largely unregulated Internet-based TV services including “catch-up” TV, live streaming, “TV Everywhere” offerings, video-on-demand streaming and user-generated uploads. CASBAA also argues that the most dangerous challenge comes from providers of 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. 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,” John Medeiros, Chief Policy Officer, CASBAA says in a statement. 

CASBAA covered 14 markets in the study, and says in most Asian jurisdictions’ OTT services remain subject only to relatively loose regulations applied to Internet services.

The lack of regulation here could clearly have an impact on the satellite industry. The region has been a vibrant one for DTH, and in markets such as India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, there has been strong growth in DTH services. According to a recent study by ABI Research, The Asian-Pacific region is expected to see the strongest growth in digital TV subscriptions in 2012. Dish TV in India continues to lead the way and now has well over 10 million subscribers. Other DTH operators in India have also seen explosive growth. New operators, such as IMTV in Indonesia are looking to launch services, and could also be impacted here. Better regulation of OTT services will clearly help these operators. The market for pay-TV services is clearly on the increase, but in many cases, these remain low ARPU markets, and markets that have had a history of piracy problems. Improved regulation could be vital in making sure the DTH market maximizes its potential.