Responding to civil liberties concerns, the European Commission has said it will “closely monitor” a planned UK trial of deep packet inspection technology by Virgin Media. In November Virgin announced plans to look at the traffic of 40 per cent, or 1.6 million, of its subscribers, to gauge the level of illegal file-sharing on its […]
The German state media office will decide by mid-March if mobile TV via the DVB-H standard gets a second chance. An important requirement for a possible re-tender of a 10-year licence is that interested parties confirm their interest in deploying DVB-H to the approval and oversight commission of the media offices (ZAK) before the end […]
The Federal Communications Commission has voted to stop cable operators from withholding local sports channels from rivals in the US, potentially giving consumers more choice of pay-TV providers. Federal law requires cable operators to offer access to channels they partially or wholly own to rivals at reasonable rates. But the law includes a loophole that […]
Microsoft is suing TiVo alleging infringement of patents for a system that displays programme information and a secure method for buying and delivering video programmes. TiVo, which has 2.7 million direct DVR subscribers, is using portions of the two Microsoft patents in its products or components, including set-top box products, subscription services and software, without […]
The Indian government has suspended permission for the launch of new television channels in the country, citing scarcity of spectrum. The ministry of information and broadcasting has suspended fresh permissions for new television channels, affecting the roll out plans of up to 170 channels, applications for which are pending with the ministry. In a communication […]
A board meeting at Ofcom is set to approve the regulator obliging Sky to cut its wholesale prices on its sports channels. In choreographed weekend interviews BT set the ground claiming it would definitely significantly undercut Sky with its retail price if it gets access to the channels at the kind of prices put forward […]
From David Del Valle in Madrid The European Commission (EC) has urged Spain to put on hold the new RTVE’s new financial regime until its probe into the new Spanish legislation to determine whether it is compatible or not with the EU Treaty has concluded. Until then, RTVE, which ceased broadcasting advertising from on January […]
Ofcom is considering further relaxing the TV advertising rules, Chief Executive Ed Richards commented: “Ofcom is committed to reducing its regulatory burdens. In the last few years the TV sector has moved on with substantial increases in the take-up of digital services and in the number of available channels, and consolidation in the advertising buying […]
New rules to be introduced by government decree will require Italians who upload videos onto the Internet to obtain authorisation from the Communications Ministry similar to that required by television broadcasters, drastically reducing freedom to communicate over the Web. The decree is ostensibly an enactment of a European Union (EU) directive on product placement and […]
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) has unsurprisingly supported the Federal Communications Commission's recognition that its Internet policies should be subject to 'reasonable network management' and urged the Commission to continue to allow the industry to establish appropriate management techniques to meet evolving consumer needs. ATIS cited the ongoing work of its Next Generation […]