The financial model of the public broadcaster RTVE may collapse if the Luxembourg EU Court overturns the government-imposed tax on telco companies to finance the group. Telco companies and commercial and pay TV channels are obliged by law to dedicate 0.9 per cent, 3 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively, of their revenues to […]
Objective data and independent empirical research will better inform the debate surrounding copyright policy in the digital age, according to US research body the National Research Council. The Council notes that the roll-out of the World Wide Web and expanded use of digital technologies in the mid-1990s marked the beginning of a technological revolution that […]
Following the admission by John Whittingdale, Chairman of the UK House of Commons Chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, that a Communications Bill was unlikely to feature in the government’s legislative programme for 2013-14, Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, has revealed that a Communications Green Paper – a […]
The Digital TV Group (DTG), the industry association for digital TV in the UK, has published the first status update of the government-backed Future of Innovation in Television Technology (FITT) Taskforce. Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Ed Vaizey MP announced the publication of the update in his keynote speech to delegates at the […]
Ukraine has been named as a Priority Foreign Country (PFC) under the US’s ‘Special 301’ statute following the severe deterioration of enforcement in the areas of government use of pirated software and piracy over the Internet, as well as denial of fair and equitable market access through the authorisation and operation of copyright collecting societies. […]
A fear that new advertising billing methods would not be approved by India’s taxation authorities ended up with many high profile TV channels not airing commercials during ad breaks on May 1st. Affected channels include most of the Star networks, Zee TV and Viacom-backed Colors. A rolling ticker was being screened on air by the […]
Leslie Moonves CEO of CBS has joined Fox Broadcasting’s threat to take their television network off the air and become a cable channel if courts don’t stop the Internet start-up Aereo from retransmitting shows without permission. “We’ve spoken to cable operators in New York. We can do it in a few days,” Moonves told the […]
UTECA, the private TV Association formed by Mediaset, Atresmedia, Veo and Net TV, is taking the Spanish government to court over its decision to revoke nine DTT channels on the grounds that it puts the Audiovisual sector “in an unprecedented situation with no legal guarantee”. Last March, the Administration decided to revoke the licences of […]
Barry Diller, founder of controversial online broadcasting service Aereo, has asserted that broadcasters who are currently seeking to have the operation outlawed are obliged to provide a signal, suggesting that their litigation is motivated by a desire to get relief from Congress in respect of carriage fees. Interviewed on Bloomberg TV’s Lunch Money, Diller described […]
Arabic news broadcaster Al Jazeera is one of 10 channels banned in Iraq following a week of unprecedented violence in the country. The channels, including Al Shaqira which is backed by Iraqi media tycoon Saad al-Bazzaz The 10 channels have had their licences to operate revoked. Some 200 people were killed over a six-day period […]