Paramount+ sets India launch strategy; US streamers invest in global content

TOP NEWS IN TECH

* Paramount Global's streaming service will face a tough market when it launches in India in 2023, but could benefit from a ready alliance if it plays its cards right. Paramount Global's CEO, Bob Bakish, said Paramount+ will launch in India with the aim of bundling with India's Viacom18 Digital Ventures-owned VOD platform, Voot.

* With intense competition, regulatory pressure and the increasing popularity of non-U.S. content, top U.S. streamers are boosting content spending for international productions. Paramount Global is the latest to join the move, committing to producing 150 international originals by 2025 as part of the launch of the Paramount+ streaming service in some Asian and European markets.

* Despite its late entry and limited market availability, Walt Disney Co.'s Disney+ Hotstar has emerged as the top subscription VOD streaming service in Southeast Asia. According to Kagan, a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence, the streamer also scaled rapidly since its debut in India around the second quarter of 2020, when it reported just 8.7 million paid subs.

TECH POLICY AND REGULATION

* The U.S. Federal Trade Commission received a letter from the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the panel's top Republican member, seeking a probe into TikTok Inc.'s handling of data and other practices, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing The Wall Street Journal. The letter came after reports stated that TikTok parent Beijing ByteDance Telecommunications Co. Ltd.'s staff in China accessed the personal data of U.S. users multiple times.

TECHNOLOGY

* Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. could come under increased pressure from declining memory chip prices in the third quarter following weaker-than-expected demand for Dynamic Random Access Memory and NAND chips in the second quarter, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

* The combined global installed base for smart TVs and streaming media devices totaled 1 billion in the first quarter, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s Tizen Smart Hub was the most common operating system running that hardware, according to estimates by Kagan, a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence.

* Nokia Oyj and the Indian Institute of Science announced the opening of the Nokia Center of Excellence in Networked Robotics in Bengaluru, India. The center will promote interdisciplinary research involving robotics and advanced communication technologies in 5G and artificial intelligence.

MEDIA AND STREAMING

* TikTok is facing a wrongful-death lawsuit in the U.S., filed by the parents of two minors who died after participating in a "blackout challenge" after spotting it on the app, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing The Wall Street Journal.

* Meanwhile, TikTok agreed to suspend a planned privacy policy update in Europe that sought to change the company's legal basis for targeted advertising, TechCrunch reported, citing the Irish Data Protection Commission.

* Tencent Music Entertainment Group introduced the TME Producers Alliance in the Chinese music industry to aid quality music production. The alliance will support producers facing challenges such as a lack of resources or weak commercial distribution, by providing financial incentives to build a career.

* Australia-based RAS Technology Holdings Ltd., a provider of integrated premium data and enhanced content to the global racing and wagering industries, signed an expanded five-year deal worth A$5 million with sports-betting and gaming company Entain Group Pty. Ltd., to become the provider of enhanced racing content.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

* Spark New Zealand Ltd. will sell a 70% interest in its TowerCo business to the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board for expected net cash proceeds of NZ$900 million. The agreement values TowerCo, which manages approximately 1,263 sites, at about NZ$1.18 billion.

* Japanese telco Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., fiber-optic operator PC Landing Corp., Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and JA Mitsui Leasing Ltd. announced the launch of a new company called Seren Juno Network Co. Ltd. for constructing and operating a new trans-Pacific submarine cable system named "Juno," linking the U.S. and Japan.

INTERNET

* U.S. internet outages jumped 82% to 167 in the week of July 2, from 92 in the prior week, according to data from ThousandEyes, a network-monitoring service owned by Cisco Systems Inc. Business-hours outages dropped 17 percentage points to 25% of the total in the Asia-Pacific region.

Our weekly feature covers the latest technology developments in the Asia-Pacific region, spotlighting exclusive insights from news and research within S&P Global Market Intelligence. The weekly Asia-Pacific tech roundup has an editorial deadline of 7 a.m. Hong Kong time and is published every Thursday.