The US Department of Justice has come out in support of the major TV networks in their forthcoming Supreme Court case against Internet TV streaming service Aereo. In a brief filed with Court March 3rd, the DoJ contends that Aereo is “clearly infringing” on the copyrights of the major broadcasters by picking up their free, […]
Britain’s Channel 5 network is up for sale and widespread reports over the weekend cite a number of potential bidders, each of which has looked at the assets on sale. Discovery Communications is said to have tabled a joint bid with pay-TV giant BSkyB. The proposal is stated to have Discovery managing the free-to-air network […]
Cutting the BBC licence fee would reduce consumer choice and value for money, as well as greatly damaging UK programme producers, according to a study from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. The report
Following the announcement November 2013 that it would be launching a hybrid broadcast broadband service, Australian digital terrestrial platform Freeview has unveiled the key features of its FreeviewPlus service which will provide access to content and services from the free-to air networks. FreeviewPlus aims to deliver the most advanced, user-friendly free-to-air EPG experience, with catch-up […]
Following the surprise news in December 2013 that coverage of internationally-popular Australian saloon car racing series V8 Supercars would move from free-to-air network Seven to pay-TV outlets Foxtel and Fox Sports, with free-to-air network Ten also included in the deal, further details of the 2015-2020 media rights have been revealed. Under the new arrangement, V8 […]
The BBC and BSkyB have settled the long-running row over retransmission fees with the corporation no longer having to pay to put its channels on the pay-TV platform, saving £4.5 milliom (€5.3m) a year in licence money. They have also agreed a new long-term carriage deal for BBC services and the iPlayer on Sky’s platform. […]
The Media Institute – a non-profit research foundation specialising in communications policy – has filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the US Supreme Court in the case it says could have “disastrous” consequences for the US broadcasting industry. The Institute filed a brief in American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc., arguing that Aereo’s model for […]
Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules in the forthcoming Aereo case, rival Internet TV streaming service FilmOn will still have a viable business model, according to Mike Paxton, Senior Analyst at SNL Kagan MRG. In an Executive Brief – FilmOn: Beyond the Court Cases, an Interesting Business Model – shared with advanced-television.com, Paxton notes […]
BBC Director-General Tony Hall has suggested that there is room for modernisation of the BBC licence fee so that it applies to the consumption of BBC TV programmes, whether live on BBC One or on-demand via BBC iPlayer. In a speech at the Oxford Media Convention, Hall refuted suggestions that the licence fee undermined competition, […]
UK Culture secretary Maria Miller has said Scotland will lose the BBC if it votes for independence in the September referendum. Miller warned that a vote for independence was a vote to leave the institutions of the UK, and that included the BBC. The minister told the Oxford Media Convention that the BBC was “part […]