Sky1 has appointed the BBC’s Lucy Lumsden as the satellite channel’s first head of comedy. Lumsden worked with Stuart Murphy, programme director of Sky 1, on many of BBC3’s early comedy successes. ….

Despite receiving some money against the £35m (E41m) it is owed, the English Premier League has told Setanta if it does not pay the balance by Friday, 19 June, it will put its remaining games – 46 live matches in the 09-10 season – out to tender. “In view of the shortage of time before […]

Phorm, the ad technology company, posted a pre-tax loss of $49.8m in 2008, up from $32.8m in 2007. However, the company insisted the launch of its controversial behavioural ad targeting technology in the UK is on track. The company said that as at 31 December 2008, the company had net assets of $22.4m, with cash […]

UK media regulator Ofcom is proposing to crack down on the amount of “sustained sex scenes and sexual language” shown on TV immediately after the 9pm watershed, to better protect younger viewers from explicit content broadcast free-to-air by so-called “babe channels” such as Playboy TV and Babeworld TV. ….

Japan’s upper house has approved a revision to the Copyright Law making downloading of pirated content illegal. The revision will go into effect on January 1st. Uploading of pirated music and video content is already proscribed, but downloading has been tolerated as long as it is for personal use. Legislators have prescribed no penalties for […]

Tony Ball, the Chairman of Kabel Deutschland and former Chief Executive of BSkyB, has joined the BT Board as a non-executive director. Between 1999 and 2003 he was Chief Executive of BSkyB plc, where he drove the rapid take up of Sky's digital TV offering. During the past four he has been chair of private […]

BBC Worldwide has appointed Luke Bradley-Jones, the head of its digital operations in the US, as the new managing director of BBC.com. Bradley-Jones, who has held the New York-based role of executive vice-president of digital media and business development for BBC Worldwide for the past two years, replaces Kym Niblock, who is leaving the corporation […]

From Colin Mann in London The UK government has published its Digital Britain report, which sets out the importance of the Digital Economy to the nation's economic future, and how it will drive future industrial capability and competitiveness. It makes the case that the United Kingdom's communications infrastructure and increased Digital Participation are key to […]

The lobbying effort is backed by more than 15 organisations from the creative industries and, for the first time, Amicus/Unite and the Trade Union Congress. The coalition urges the government to ensure a tough stance is taken in the final Digital Britain report, due to be published by the communications minister, Lord Carter. “Job losses […]

The chief executive of BT Vision, Dan Marks, has quit to pursue his own interests. IPTV service BT Vision is at the heart of the UK telco’s efforts to move beyond traditional phone services. But Marks warned that without an acceleration to Ofcom’s review of the pay-TV sector, enabling BT to access BSkyB’s premium film […]