CTC Media, Russia’s leading independent media company, supported the initiative of the largest Russian media companies to consolidate efforts in protecting intellectual property rights in the information and telecommunications networks. Communiqué, a recommendatory document on coordinated activities of the intellectual property rights owners, was signed on July 25th in the Federal Service for Supervision in […]
An initiative by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to open up the pay-TV market has had an unenthusiastic response with fewer applications for licences than expected. Initial hearings for Individual Commercial Subscription Broadcasting Service licences began July 24th and continue until July 26th. The five prospective licensees are: Kagiso TVd, Siyaya Free […]
Spanish telcos have lost their fight against the government-imposed 0.9 per cent annual tax on their revenues to finance public broadcaster RTVE following the EC’s decision to withdraw its appeal before the Luxembourg Court, shortly after the latter ruled that the similar tax legislation in France is compatible with European regulations. The European Court is […]
Sky Italia has announced that by law the Lazio court will have to decide whether the current advertising limit imposed only to the pay-TV is lawful, as underlined by the European Court of Justice. This comes despite the fact that the European court said that making a distinction between pay and FTA is not ipso […]
FIFA and UEFA have lost an appeal against a European ruling that the World Cup and Euro Championships should be shown on free-to-air TV in the UK. In 2011, the European General Court said the UK could keep the events on a list of “protected” events of national sporting interest broadcast for free – meaning […]
With significant reform of the current patchwork system of regulations governing telecommunications in the European Union there could be up to €750 billion in GDP growth and 5.5 million jobs by 2020, according to a study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO). The study details how a […]
The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to verify whether the transfer of public cable infrastructure between 2003 and 2006 by several French municipalities to the French Telecom operator Numéricâble was in line with EU state aid rules. As Numéricâble received the infrastructure for free, the transfers gave the company a huge economic advantage […]
In April, Switzerland’s Competition Commission opened an investigation directed at Swisscom and Cinetrade into the broadcasting of live sporting events on pay-TV. The Competition Commission has now clearly rejected the precautionary measures proposed by three cable providers in connection with the investigation on May 7th. Swisscom has welcomed this decision and will continue to broadcast […]
The US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York has drawn to a close the action taken against online entertainment service Aereo, with Fox, one of the parties to the action, suggesting it may pursue the matter in a higher court. In April, a panel of judges for the 2nd Circuit ruled that Aereo […]
DVR specialist TiVo is urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ensure that consumers can continue to access cable content on retail devices using CableCARDs until a successor solution is available. TiVo has filed a petition asking the FCC to reinstate procedures aimed at guaranteeing that cable customers continue to have the ability to use […]