Following up on proposing a law that internet video should abide by broadcast regulation, Italy's Supreme Court has ruled that ISPs in the country must block access to Pirate Bay. Following a previous attempt to make ISPs block the site, the Court of Bergamo, on an appeal from Pirate Bay, ruled that foreign websites could […]

UK Broadcasters will soon be able to accept payment for featuring branded goods in their programmes for the first time. Ben Bradshaw, the culture minister, said the government would legislate to allow TV product placement, calling it an “important departure”. Estimates of the annual revenue generated for broadcasters such as ITV from product placement range […]

UK comms regulator Ofcom has given its consent to the BBC and broadcast transmission firm Arqiva jointly marketing spare capacity that has become available ahead of digital switchover, as well as new capacity that will become available following the process. With the UK's digital switchover being managed region by region until 2012, certain unused capacity […]

The Joint Select Committee on Human Rights said the government’s Digital Economy Bill needed clarification. It said that technical measures – which include cutting off persistent pirates – were not “sufficiently specified”. In addition, it said that it was concerned that the Bill could create “over-broad powers”. “The Internet is constantly creating new challenges for […]

Italy’s government is forging ahead with plans to extend television-broadcasting regulations to websites that host videos. The draft decree, expected to take effect early this month, would force sites to operate more like traditional TV broadcasters within Italian borders. It seeks to “establish a principle,” Paolo Romani, Italy’s deputy minister of communications, said in an […]

The Japanese Financial Services Agency has started an investigation into KDDI over its planned purchase of Jupiter Telecommunications shares from Liberty Global, according to reports in Japanese newspapers. The FSA is asking KDDI to change the planned purchasing method for the shares to a tender offer, the report said, as the transaction in its current […]

The European Commission has determined the French plan for a tax on telecom operators to finance public broadcaster France Télévisions is an administrative charge incompatible with European law, and has opened infringement proceedings against France. The Government has two months to reply to make representations.

China Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), China’s national operator of CMMB mobile TV, CBC general manager Sun Chaohui revealed that CBC and China Mobile will officially launch mobile phone TV service in early February. CBC and China Mobile signed an agreement to cooperate by promoting CMMB service on TD-SCDMA handsets in May of last year. Although CMMB-enabled […]

Existing law would prevent Comcast from denying satellite TV providers and other rivals access to NBC Universal programming on reasonable terms once the cable TV operator takes control of the media company, Comcast’s chief executive Brian Roberts has said. Satellite companies such as DirecTV and smaller cable companies fear that if regulators approve Comcast’s plan […]

The Indian government has accepted the recommendations made by telecom regulator TRAI to hold a bidding process for issuing licences for offering mobile TV services. It has also been decided to allow operators to decide on the technology to be deployed for offering the service. “The methodology for grant of licence through closed tender system […]