The OIPF (Open IPTV Forum) has confirmed the publication of Release 2 of its global end-to-end specifications for IPTV. This is a major step forward for end-to-end interoperability within the IPTV ecosystem. Release 2 includes an evolution of functionality across many areas of the Release 1 Specifications, with notable enhancements of major functional areas. […]
Police have conducted a series of raids across Europe in the biggest crackdown yet on file-sharing. 48 sites were targeted in countries including the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Hungary. In Sweden, seven premises were raided including PRQ, which is believed to host Pirate Bay and the revelatory website WikiLeaks. Co-ordinated by Belgian police, the operation […]
Net Neutrality is, ironically, a matter on which nearly no one is neutral. When the Web was young the idea of equal access for all content and service providers was logical and easily accommodated. Then came video, which was magnitudes more bandwidth hungry than what had gone before. But there was still no question of […]
The hail of regulator references and appeals continues in the UK as Ofcom asks the Competition Commission to investigate its concerns regarding the sale and distribution of pay TV movies. Ofcom thinks the way in which first-run Hollywood movies are sold and distributed creates a situation in which Sky has the incentive and ability to […]
From Colin Mann in London Free-market policy research body The Adam Smith Institute is proposing that the TV Licence Fee should be abolished, and that the BBC should instead become a subscription service. The think tank makes its arguments in a report – Global Player or Subsidy Junkie? Decision time for the BBC – written […]
I wonder if Rupert Murdoch allows himself an ironic chuckle that while the UK government (in common with virtually all its counterparts) is preparing legislation to punish consumers and distributors for stealing content rights, its regulator is forcing Sky to handover those rights (or the product of them) for a discounted price. I imagine Murdoch […]
By a party-line split vote of 3 to 2 the FCC has moved toward giving itself the authority to regulate the transmission component of broadband service, a power the commission's Democratic majority believes is central to expanding the availability of broadband. The next step is invite public comment on the proposal to overturn a previous […]
Mediaset, which has been ordered to repay millions of Euros it had received in state aid relating to DTT set-top box subsidies (see ATV 16/06/10), will appeal the European General Court's decision. Mediaset will appeal to the European Court of Justice and say that the subsidies were provided direct to consumers and not to broadcasters, […]
Broadband subscription growth took an upswing during the first quarter of 2010, supported in part by healthy DSL growth in every region, strong fibre rollouts in Asia and aggressive IPTV service offerings. Figures from the Broadband Forum show that global broadband lines now top 484 million lines (484,788,597), representing a 3.12 per cent growth in […]
The European Union’s court has thrown out an appeal from a digital-TV company owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, ordering it and other broadcasters to pay back possibly millions of Euros in illegal state aid. The ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) orders his government to claim money back from his family’s […]