Not for the first time China is clamping down on the screening of non-Chinese programming. An order issued by China’s General Administration for Press and Publications, says that Chinese TV stations can only screen one foreign programme per year starting in January 2014. Moreover any such programme cannot be screened in primetime (7.30pm-10pm) during the […]
The Alliance for Intellectual Property – a UK-based coalition of 24 trade associations concerned with ensuring that intellectual property rights are valued in the UK and that a legislative regime exists which enables the value and contribution of these rights to be fully realised – has launched an exercise to hear from creators and businesses, […]
Suggesting that the outcome strengthens the marketplace for legal commerce online, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has described the agreement by BitTorrent website isoHunt.com to halt all operations worldwide in connection with a settlement of the major movie studios’ landmark copyright lawsuit against the site and its operator Gary Fung as “a major […]
Egypt’s state-backed broadcaster ERTU has been accused of stealing the exclusive TV rights held by Al Jazeera Sports of Tuesday’s Egypt vs Ghana football match. Tension between Egypt and Qatar are already at fever pitch because of various arrests and the formal banning of Al Jazeera news journalists from Egypt. Al-Jazeera Sports announced on air […]
A UK High Court ruling has forced streaming website TVCatchUp to drop over 20 channels aired by commercial broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. The ruling means that it cannot stream the main ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 networks on its mobile TV service, nor can it stream 11 of the broadcasters’ digital […]
SeaChange International, the multi-screen video software specialist, has announced that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed the US District Court’s October 2012 decision which rejected Arris Group’s allegations that SeaChange had violated a 2006 injunction. The 12-year dispute began in 2001 when n-Cube Corporation (whose interest was later acquired by […]
French commercial network TF1 says that it may be forced to close down its flagship news channel LCI if it does gain permission to start broadcasting free-to-air. The French market for broadcast news is especially competitive, and LCI is an encrypted channel while many of its direct competitors transmit unencrypted. LCI is appealing to the […]
New Zealand pay-TV operator Sky TV has been issued with a warning that its contracts with telcos were likely to have previously harmed competition, following an investigation by the country’s Commerce Commission. The Commission found that market developments now mean that relevant parts of the contracts are unlikely to have that effect now or cause […]
Last month it was arch-rival Dish TV that faced a similar action, now it is US satellite giant DirecTV which has been hit by a Class Action alleging that the broadcaster made tens of thousands of unsolicited sales calls to consumers. The penalties for making unsolicited calls are potentially enormous. The USA’s Telephone Consumer Protection […]
Satellite operators SES and Eutelsat are working together to ensure a smooth transition of operations on frequencies at 28.5°E following the Tribunal decision that concluded the first phase of arbitration in September 2013 and a preliminary injunction which gives SES the rights to the disputed frequencies. As of October 4th, SES is operating and Eutelsat […]