In a rare win for Echostar in its long running patent row with TiVo, the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) has ruled TiVo's 'Time Warp' patent invalid. This has been at the heart of the dispute. “We are pleased the Patent and Trademark Office issued a Final Office Action maintaining its rejection of the […]

Australian telco Telstra has come under fire after pay-TV provider Foxtel made an application to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) to allow its Internet television service to be available only to Telstra’s broadband customers. The move has led to calls of anti-competitiveness against Telstra, with the competition watchdog to review whether Foxtel can […]

A proposed code of practice which implements legislative measures aimed at reducing online copyright infringement has been published by Ofcom for consultation. The Digital Economy Act 2010 requires that the code of practice is implemented no later than eight months from Royal Assent, including approval from the European Commission. Subject to consultation and approval, Ofcom […]

Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) has been fined £225,000 (E267,000) by media regulator Ofcom for closing the Teletext TV service. DMGT, which announced last July that it would shut Teletext’s TV service after 17 years, has been fined for breaking its public service broadcasting licence by shutting the service in December. The company closed […]

The French Postal and electronic communications regulatory authority, ARCEP, is releasing its discussion points and initial policy guidelines on Internet and network neutrality. The document is the result of a wide-reaching preliminary examination by the Authority that lasted close to seven months, which included a series of some 50 interviews and a survey – the […]

From Colin Mann in London UK regulator Ofcom has said it will address net neutrality in the coming months describing the issue as of 'significant resonance' in the era of digital deregulation. Ofcom board member Tim Gardam, now an academic but former C4 programme director, told the Broadcasting and Beyond conference “it is becoming increasingly […]

ASA, the UK advertising watchdog, has made its first ruling against a VOD ad, banning a zombie film trailer that ran in The X Factor final on the ITV Player. The Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint that the ad was frightening and inappropriate for display during a family programme because it had distressed young […]

Ofcom has confirmed that only fixed line ISPs with more than 400,000 subscribers will be forced to comply with the Digital Economy Act’s controversial anti-file sharing provisions. The communications regulator has informed the Internet Service Providers’ Association of the benchmark, and said it intends to publish rules within the next two weeks. It means mobile […]

A federal appeals court has granted Dish Network a rare, full-court (so-called 'en banc'”) review of a ruling it had earlier lost to TiVo, that could have resulted in the satellite TV company disabling millions of digital video recorders. However, the US Court of Appeals review is a last straw effort as damages mounted. TiVo […]

Federal Trade Commision Chairman Jon Liebowitz told cable operators in Los Angeles for the NCTA show that the commission is not interested in regulating behavioural advertising so long as the industry is making “progress” toward self-regulation. “So long as self-regulation is making forward progress, the FTC is not interested in regulating in this area,” he […]