Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary, who approved the deal says: “Informed by advice from the regulators, I believe that these will address concerns about media plurality should the proposed News Corporation/BSkyB merger go ahead. The undertakings offered would ensure that shareholdings in Sky News would remain unchanged, and indeed offer it more independence from News Corporation […]
Ofcom has published its advice to Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary, that finally recommended accepting the Undertakings in Lieu (UILs) offered by News Corp as a condition of approval of its takeover of Sky. Hunt has given approval and nominated a further period of public consultation on his decision through to March 21st. The letters show […]
The Italian State Council has ruled that Sky Italia can take part in the tender for DTT frequencies in Italy. The government had originally tried to thwart the News Corp owned broadcaster’s attempt at obtaining terrestrial frequencies. There are currently 21 multiplexes available in the country, of which 16 have already been awarded.
Simon Woodward, CEO of digital TV software provider ANT, has implied that delays in agreeing product specifications that deliver the benefit of merged linear and Internet TV has affected the company’s revenues. Woodward’s comments came as ANT reported a seven per cent drop in full year revenue to £4.35million (€5.14m) last year from £4.70 million […]
The police in Dubai have raided “dozens” of buildings in the UAE targeting alleged signal distribution pirates in the region. Dubai Police’s economic crime department co-ordinated the raids having been given details of the alleged pirates by Arab Digital Distribution (ADD), a pay-TV broadcaster which specialises in supplying content for Asian viewers. “Piracy is not […]
The Canadian Federal Court of Appeal has cleared the way for broadcasters to charge cable and satellite providers for carrying their programmes. The CRTC had asked the court to rule on whether it had the right to establish a regime whereby broadcasters could attach a value to their signals. In a 2-1 ruling, the court […]
A UK Government working group is to be formed to try to find a “plan B” to avoid potential litigation arising from the blocking of websites accused of illegal filesharing. The group will comprise rights holders, ISPs and search engines, is being formed after culture secretary Jeremy Hunt referred the Digital Economy Act’s section 17 […]
Prosecutors have dealt a blow to anti-piracy initiatives by dropping their case against two men accused of pirating films online. Two administrators of FileSoup – the longest standing BitTorrent community – had their case dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). George Cartledge, from Glasgow, and Stephen Lanning, from Somerset, faced charges of conspiracy to […]
Ireland’s TV3 has condemned Communications Minister Pat Carey’s decision to approve RTE’s proposed five “free to air” channels as part of the Digital Terrestrial Television roll-out. TV3 said it was “shocked” that the state broadcaster would be allowed to run the new TV channels. Carey approved the roll-out of high definition RTE Two HD Select, […]
A group of 34 movie studios has lost its appeal against an Australian Federal Court judgment involving Internet Service Provider iiNet. A 2010 ruling found it was impossible to hold iiNet responsible for its users illegally downloading movies and television shows. The studios had tried to prove iiNet not only failed to take steps to […]