Advanced Television

Policy

4G boost for O2 and Vodafone

In a move that will appease operators O2 and Vodafone, UK comms regulator Ofcom has revealed that significant progress that has been made in moving forward the delivery of competitive 4G mobile services across the UK. This means that the 4G auction process is on track to begin at the end of the year to […]

October 3, 2012

South America to hit TV pirates hard

There are an estimated 200,000 pirate set-top boxes in use in Chile, Venexuela, Peru and Colombia today. Tomorrow many of them will be useless if the scheme mooted by the region’s pay-TV operators have their way. Starting immediately, broadcasters will address the widespread software hacking which permits users to access up to 200 channels. Nagra […]

October 3, 2012By Chris Forrester

MPAA’s Dodd: Content, technology communities partners, not adversaries

Following earlier speeches which suggested that both the creative and technology communities, must work together to find a shared solution to movie piracy, Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has reiterated his call for co-operation. Writing on website politico.com following a discussion at the Commonwealth Club in […]

October 3, 2012By Colin Mann

Diller versus Driller: Round One to Barry Diller

Barry Diller, the former Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures Corp and of Fox, and the current Chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp, a backer of start-up Internet streaming service Aereo, has won the first stage of a legal battle against Alki David-backed BarryDriller.com. A California District court has granted a preliminary injunction against David’s service from continuing […]

October 1, 2012By Colin Mann

Press TV banned – again

Iran-backed TV news channel Press TV has been banned again. This time it is a German superior court in Bavaria which has successfully argued that Press TV cannot be transmitted for broadcast to Germany. The ruling overturns a decision by a lower court in Munich that had ruled in favour of the controversial English-language news […]

September 28, 2012By Chris Forrester

TiVo earns $1bn from patent rulings

The court verdict that awarded at least $250 million to TiVo from telco giant Verizon means that the ‘time warp’ patent-holder has now earned more than $1 billion for its IP, part of its DVR time-shifting technology. And the cash will continue to come in. Most of the awards are also tied into royalty payments […]

September 25, 2012By Chris Forrester

Dish ‘Autohop’ trial arguments

Charlie Ergen is currently involved in – at least – two bouts of serious litigation. There’s the Cablevision/VOOM case, which restarts on September 24th in New York, and 3,000 miles away in a Los Angeles courtroom Dish Network is defending its ‘Autohop’ ad-skipping service against an application for an injunction from Fox Television. Fox Television […]

September 24, 2012By Chris Forrester

International Anti-Piracy Caucus unveils Watch List

The US Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus, which is chaired by Congressmen Adam Schiff and Bob Goodlatte, and Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Orrin Hatch, has unveiled the 2012 International Piracy Watch List. In an effort to fight copyright piracy and call attention to countries where it has reached alarming levels, the Caucus highlighted the high levels […]

September 21, 2012By Colin Mann

Judge tells Dish and VOOM to talk again

Judge Richard Lowe, officiating over the Cablevision vs EchoStar legal action in New York, used a break in the case to tell the litigants to “engage in discussions” before the trial gets underway properly next week.  The hearing was delayed because not enough jury members were empanelled. Cablevision is suing EchoStar for $2.4 billion, and […]

September 21, 2012By Chris Forrester

Voom HD case comes to court

The bitter dispute between EchoStar’s Charlie Ergen and Cablevision’s Dolan family over the long-abandoned Voom HDTV portfolio of channels is about to come to court. Cablevision is suing EchoStar for $2.5 billion in damages, arguing that in taking Voom down from its Dish Network the broadcaster breached a binding contract between the two parties. The […]

September 17, 2012By Chris Forrester