Contract Rights Renewal, the rules which dictate how much ITV1 can charge advertisers, will stay for now says the Competition Commission. In its provisional report into CRR the watchdog has proposed “variations” which, for example, could allow ITV1 to capture more commercial impacts, such as rolling in high-definition and time-shifted channels into the definition of […]

From Branislav Pekic in Rome Italy's Communications Authority has opened its investigation into the satellite distribution of RAI channels, although it has has no objections to the launch of the TivùSat platform, set up jointly with Mediaset and Telecom Italia Media. According to the Authority, the inquiry “will determine the distribution mode for the smart […]

ITV has welcomed a Government U turn on product placement. Ben Bradshaw, the culture secretary, is expected to propose this week that commercial broadcasters and TV producers will be able to receive payment to include brands in their programming. The move will bring the UK into line with Europe and the US, where product placement […]

The Kudelski Group has confirmed the acquisition of Medioh!, a media technology company aggregating mid-tail content, and providing a widget and content publishing platform for multimedia devices. Medioh! has built a solid media oriented web and server expertise combined with a proven track record of implementing scalable web based media systems. The company benefits from […]

From Davie Del Valle in Madrid Spanish competition watchdog the CNC has launched an inquiry into media group Mediapro and its pay-TV football channel Gol TV over possible anti-trust practices. The CNC argues that Mediapro may be breaking the competition legislation, damaging the pay-TV market by not reselling its football TV rights to the Spanish […]

ITV has offered the job of chief executive to Tony Ball but has so far been unable to agree terms with the former head of British Sky Broadcasting, according to reports. ITV and Ball were said to be holding talks over the structure and conditions of a turnaround incentive award for Ball akin to a […]

The Open IPTV Forum (OIPF) has published the Architecture Specification for IPTV infrastructure elements and services to be included in Release 2 of the OIPF Specifications. The Architecture Specification is freely available for download from the Publications section of the Forum website www.oipf.tv. Release 1 of the OIPF technical specifications was published early in 2009, […]

YouTube will spend approximately $300 million on bandwidth in 2009 — meaning it won’t be profitable, according to an analysis by Credit Suisse. According to the report' authors that means YouTube still would not be profitable at the gross level this year, given their original 2009 revenue estimate of $240 million (a top-line increase of […]

Wall St is speculating General Electric is paving the way for a possible change of the ownership structure at media company NBC Universal as Vivendi's annual option to sell its 20% comes around again in November. The WSJ quoted a source: "Talk to people in the media banking community; there is a book out on […]

BBC Worldwide's head of sales and business development of digital media, Peter Mercier, has left the company to join Microsoft. He becomes Microsoft's senior director of content acquisitions and strategy and will develop partnerships for its entertainment and devices division building relationships across Xbox, Windows Media Centre and mobile platforms. Mercier was head of mobile […]