Industry Updates

NO, Joe Hockey, a ‘Netflix tax’ wouldn’t raise ‘billions’ 14 April 2015

During the ongoing debate about tax evasion by multinationals, Joe Hockey has claimed that his latest thought-bubble, the “Netflix tax” would raise “billions”.To get “billions” of GST revenue from anything you need tens of billions of revenue. The total online … Continue reading

Pay TV’s Newest Rival Is an Old Foe: Over-the-Air Antennas 14 April 2015

As if traditional pay TV companies don’t have enough headaches from all the new over-the-top upstarts such as Sling TV and Sony’s PlayStation Vue — not to mention HBO Now’s recent debut on Apple TV devices — the nation’s cable, … Continue reading

An Argument For More TV Episodes On VOD 14 April 2015

The biggest U.S. cable operator, Comcast Corp., would like to see many more episodes of TV network shows available on pay TV providers’ on-demand services. Typically only about 30% of all TV/cable network shows are “stacked” on VOD online platforms, according … Continue reading

Same-day on-demand releases offer convenience but hurt theaters, writes Drew Pendleton 14 April 2015

In the past few years, a trend has begun to take hold in the movie marketplace: the same-day, video-on-demand release. In this scenario, a film is released on both digital video on demand platforms and in theaters – typically in … Continue reading

Adding GST to movie downloads could raise billions: Treasurer Joe Hockey 13 April 2015

Billions of dollars in additional revenue could be collected by applying GST to downloads of music and movies from international video on demand services such as Netflix, Treasurer Joe Hockey says. The move would see popular overseas media streaming services, … Continue reading