Mobile phone users in rural areas could soon see their 3G reception improve after regulators allowed operators to repurpose their existing spectrum for mobile broadband services. The ruling by Ofcom that refarming of 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum would not harm competition in the UK mobile market settles a three-year row that has held back the […]
Neil Berkett, Virgin Media CEO, has used the company’s results announcement to attack Ofcom’s decision not to investigate YouView, the BBC-originated platform to bring VoD to Freeview and Freesat. Berkett said he surmised Ofcom had seen its 25 per cent budget cut coming and has wrongly ‘deprioritised’ the issue. “When you have less resources to […]
AEPOC, the European Association for the Protection of Encrypted Works and Services, has reported a breakthrough judgement against Pay-TV piracy. Belgian prosecutors, joined by AEPOC member Sky Deutschland, have won a lawsuit against pirates, who sold illegal viewing cards to Germany and Austria from 2006 to 2008. The First Instance Court of Tongeren, Belgium ruled […]
There have been plenty of headlines in the UK suggesting that Ofcom has “approved” YouView, the BBC-backed video-on-demand service. “Not so,” implies Tony Ballard, a media lawyer at Harbottle & Lewis. Ofcom has said that any investigation now would be “premature” because it was part of an emerging sector, its impact too unclear at this […]
Ofcom has confirmed that it will not open an investigation into YouView (formerly known as ‘Project Canvas’) under the Competition Act following complaints made by Virgin Media and IPVision. Chief Executive, Ed Richards, said: “Ofcom’s view is that consumers’ interests will not be served by opening an investigation. It would be premature at the current […]
Erik Huggers, BBC director of future media and technology, says ISPs shouldn’t traffic manage but if they do it must be transparent. He summarised key points made by the BBC in its submission to the European Commission review on net neutrality (being conducted in conjunction with Ofcom) which says the EC’s three targets should be […]
The BBC has grabbed the chance to lock in the licence fee as part of horse trading in the UK government’s round of cuts. But it has paid a heavy price. The fee will be locked in at today’s rate of £145.50 (E167) for six years; a real terms cut of over 15%. It has […]
This Friday, October 22nd, BSkyB will unveil its Q1 results and a few hours later hold its AGM for the trading year that ended June 30th. It is also likely that James Murdoch, currently chairman of the broadcaster will comment on News Corp’s wish to take full ownership of BSkyB; News Corp currently holds 39.1 […]
Apparently Ofcom members were already gathered to discuss whether or not it will trigger a competition investigation on YouView, when Sky got in touch to say it was submitting a complaint to join those already received from Virgin Media, IP Vision, Six TV, United For Local Television and the Open Source Consortium. Ofcom and YouView […]
UK comms regulator Ofcom is to lose a range of powers as part of a drive across Government to increase radically the transparency and accountability of all public services. The news follows on from proposals set out by the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt in July this year, […]