Advanced Television

Policy

Fines for Swansea Sky Sports piracy

Elspeth Lerwell, the Licensee, and Richard Hole, the Sole Director of the Fairfield Social Club in Swansea, Wales, have been found guilty in their absence of four offences related to the dishonest broadcast of Sky televised programming. In this case, both Lerwell and Hole televised football matches with the intent to avoid payment of the […]

December 19, 2024By Colin Mann

Ofcom to assess BBC radio expansion plans

Ofcom has written to the BBC confirming that it will carry out full BBC Competition Assessments (BCAs) of the Corporation’s radio expansion plans. In November 2024, the BBC published proposals to launch four new DAB+ stations: Radio 1 Dance, Radio 1 Anthems, a Radio 2 extension, and Radio 3 Unwind. The Corporation also published proposals […]

December 19, 2024By Colin Mann

Italy: Illegal streaming network taken down

An illegal network, which broadcast unauthorised television programmes, series and other content from streaming platforms on the Internet and social networks, has been taken down in Naples by the Guardia di Finanza. The operation, which involved the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Naples and the Special Unit for the Protection of Privacy and Technological Fraud of […]

December 18, 2024By Colin Mann

Netherlands: Netflix €4.75m privacy fine

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) has fined Netflix €4.75 million (£3.9m) for not properly informing customers about its use of their personal data between 2018 and 2020. An investigation, started in 2019, showed that “Netflix did not inform customers clearly enough in its privacy statement about what exactly Netflix does with those data,” the […]

December 18, 2024

Ofcom: PSBs ‘facing challenges’

As part of its role to support and strengthen the quality of public service broadcasting (PSB), regulator Ofcom has a duty to review periodically how television services provided by the BBC, ITV, STV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and S4C have delivered against the PSB purposes and objectives set by Parliament. This includes, among other things, […]

December 17, 2024By Colin Mann

UK creatives fear AI copyright waiver

In a consultation announced by the UK government, it is proposed there may be an exemption to copyright laws, letting tech companies use material to train their artificial intelligence (AI) models unless the rights holder objects under a so-called ‘rights reservation’ system. In return, tech companies may be forced to open their AI models to […]

December 17, 2024By Colin Mann

Ofcom’s Online Saftey Act comes into force

Tech firms are now legally required to start taking action to tackle criminal activity on their platforms in the UK, and make them safer by design. Ofcom has published its first-edition codes of practice and guidance on tackling illegal harms (four months ahead of schedule) – such as terror, hate, fraud, child sexual abuse and […]

December 16, 2024

WGA tells studios to sue AI trainers

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is calling on Hollywood studios to take a stand on the use of their members’ works as AI training data. Leaders of the WGA West and East demanded that producers take “immediate legal action” against any firms that have used writers’ work to train AI models. A letter sent […]

December 13, 2024

Serie A, Meta copyright collaboration

Lega Serie A, Italy’s top flight football league, and Meta have confirmed they are collaborating in fighting online piracy of sporting events on a global scale, showcasing the power of joint efforts between content owners and online platforms. Rights Manager: Lega Serie A has access to Rights Manager, a content management system developed by Meta […]

December 13, 2024By Colin Mann

Ofcom proposes spectrum licence fee changes

UK regulator Ofcom is consulting on proposed changes to the annual licence fees (ALFs) paid by mobile network operators to use certain spectrum bands. It charges mobile network operators annual licence fees for the use of three spectrum bands (900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz). They typically come into effect after a mobile operator’s […]

December 13, 2024By Colin Mann