A strong digital infrastructure is a key factor in supporting Europe’s cultural and creative sector, according to Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda. Speaking at the European Parliament in Brussels to update Culture Committee on the Commission’s work, Kroes said that with Europe facing difficult times, the creative industries […]
NileSat’s MD Salah Hamza is blaming a “major institution”, and not individuals, for the heavy bout of satellite jamming being suffered by Middle East and European satellite operators. Speaking on Egypt’s ‘Good Morning Egypt’ TV show on Channel 1 on November 26th, Hamza said the jamming was being tackled and analysed in order to locate […]
Egypt’s privately-owned Dream TV channel suffered an interruption to its service for a week, restoring transmissions on November 24th. Now, state-backed broadcaster Egyptian Radio & Television Union (ERTU) is demanding that the broadcasts again cease. Cairo’s Administrative Court granted Dream TV permission to resume broadcasts on November 24th pending a full hearing by the court. […]
Abu Dhabi is spending millions to build itself up as a major broadcasting hub, and is home to broadcasters such as Sky News Arabia and CNN’s Middle East service. At the same time it has started removing what its Town Hall has described as “illegal dish installations”. On November 25th city workers started removing dishes. […]
Australia’s commercial free-to-air networks have lobbied the government to impose tougher tax rules on global online giants – such as Google and Facebook – in an attempt to create a “level playing field” beyond the media reforms set to go before cabinet this week. The main priority of the free-to-air lobby is to have licence […]
Xiaomi Technology has delayed the launch of its television set-top box, after the country’s broadcast regulator opened an investigation into the device. Xiaomi, a maker of popular smartphonesin China, revealed last month it was to launch its “Xiaomi Box” that would stream shows from Chinese online video sites as well as games, music and other […]
There has been a consensus since the hapless George Entwistle was assisted onto his sword point a couple of weeks ago that the BBC should appoint an outsider as the new DG. All senior insiders were, to some extent or other, either tainted by the events that brought poor George down, or had no editorial […]
The UK’s cross-media ownership rules currently forbids any newspaper group which has more than 20 per cent share of the British newspaper market from owning either a “Channel 3/ITV” licence or a stake in a Channel 3 broadcaster greater than 20 per cent. It was these rules that scuppered News Corp’s plans to acquire a […]
UK comms regulator Ofcom has confirmed that implementation of copyright infringement warning letters is unlikely to occur before mid-2014. Speaking at a Westminster Media Forum Seminar on Copyright regulation and combating piracy in the UK and Europe, Justin Le Patourel, Head of Copyright, Ofcom admitted that there would be a further delay to the process. […]
“Girls of the Playboy Mansion”, a show that aired on E! Entertainment in the UK, has cost the broadcaster a £40,000 (€50,000) fine from TV regulator Ofcom. According to Ofcom the show featured “prolonged sequences of nudity” in two back-to-back episodes shown during last year’s Christmas holiday season. Even though the shows aired at 10pm, […]