The owner of Channel Five, RTL, is reported to have made a renewed approach to Channel 4 about a possible commercial tie-up between the two UK broadcasters. RTL chief executive Gerhard Zeiler, who recently admitted that Five’s value lay as an asset in the expected consolidation of the UK TV market, is said to have […]

Michel de Rosen, Chief Executive Officer of Eutelsat has announced the appointment of Yohann Leroy as Director of Strategy. Leroy joined Eutelsat from the office of the French Prime Minister, where he was technical advisor for Industry and Information Technology from 2007 to 2010. This followed four years as head of the industrial development department […]

Verimatrix and Widevine Technologies have settled pending litigation involving Widevine’s US Patents. Widevine filed suit in August of 2007 alleging that Verimatrix’s VCAS products infringe both of Widevine’s patents. Under terms of the agreement, Widevine granted Verimatrix a license to the two asserted Widevine patents and the foreign counterparts. Verimatrix makes no admission as to […]

The day after the UK Office of Fair Trading announced a consultation process that may lead to a referral of the project to the Competition Commission – a move that would delay the Canvas launch by up to a year even if it got a clean bill of health – members of the consortium have […]

The UK Office of Fair Trading is to consider a Competition Commission referral for Project Canvas, the video-on-demand service lead by the BBC. Critics including BSkyB and Virgin Media will now be able to formalise their concerns in submissions to the OFT. The outcome of a further review of the project by the BBC Trust […]

From Colin Mann in London UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that he wants Britain to be the world leader in the digital economy which will create over a quarter of a million skilled jobs by 2020. “Underpinning the digital transformation that we are likely to see over the coming decade is the creation […]

Legislation to combat Internet piracy in the UK, including Internet bans for persistent illegal file-sharers, has cleared the Lords and now goes to the Commons where it may be rushed through before the general election. Peers passed the Digital Economy Bill, which has cross-party support, after further concessions on a controversial the “catch-all” clause 17. […]

The shakeout of the online video services space continues. KIT Digital, the online video tools player now based in Prague, has bought rival video player Multicast, for about $18 million, a week after it announced closing a $15 million equity offering. Of the $18 million KIT-Multicast deal, $4.9 million is in cash and the rest […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid The must-carry obligation traditionally imposed on nation wide terrestrial TV channels to open up their signals to cable and satellite platforms for free distribution is coming to an end in Spain. The new overall TV law (Ley General Audiovisual) frees private TV channels from the must-carry obligation and allows […]

James Murdoch has called on governments to get tough on illegal downloading, which he said was no different from shoplifting. He made the call at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit. Stressing that future growth would come from original content production, he said: “We need enforcement mechanisms and we need governments to play ball. The idea […]