UK culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has countered suggestions that tackling the problem of material that is being unlawfully distributed online is an assault on the “freedom” of the Internet. He told the Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention that unlawfully distributing copyrighted material was “theft, and a direct assault on the freedoms and rights of creators […]
Getting its defence in early, Google has said it would be unworkable for it to block entire sites. In a speech to the Royal Television Society on Wednesday it has been widely trailed that UK culture secretary Jeremy Hunt will call on search engines, ISPs and transaction companies to play a more active role in […]
Canadian pay-TV producer Astral Media says foreign Internet competitors such as movie provider Netflix should be subject to the same rules as Canadian broadcasters, noting digital competitors don’t contribute to local programming or pay taxes. “They come here and don’t spend a penny,” chief executive Ian Greenberg said. “They don’t have any rules whatsoever. Taxes […]
Jeremy Hunt, the UK culture secretary, is to ask regulator Ofcom to define a means of measuring cross-media power in the UK and consider whether to cap market share of groups which have too much influence over British media; i.e. (for now) News Corp and the BBC. The minister wants Ofcom to create an agreed […]
Mexico’s Federal Telecommunications Commission (FTC) has licensed a record 146 new digital terrestrial channels in the 10 months to June. The new services bring the total authorised DTT channels to 224. Mexico is scheduled to switch off its analogue transmissions in 2015, although this decision – decreed by the FTC – is under examination by […]
Following its December announcement of four initiatives to tackle the problem of copyright infringement online, Google has issued an update on its ongoing efforts. In a Public Policy blog post, Kent Walker, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, reported that the company had made considerable progress on each front, and would continue to evolve its […]
Brazil’s senate last week passed new rules and regulations that cover telecommunications and the media in general. In essence Brazil has set quotas, although the new Bill (no. 116) has yet to be endorsed by Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff. It is suggested that foreign capital investments are relaxed. The new rules forbid vertical integration of […]
The UK’s Competition Commission (CC) has provisionally found that Sky’s control over pay-TV movie rights in the UK is restricting competition between pay-TV providers, leading to higher prices and reduced choice and innovation for subscribers. Sky has for many years held exclusively the rights to the movies of all six major Hollywood studios in the […]
BBC Monitoring is reporting that the president of Turkmenistan has ordered that all satellite dishes must be removed from houses and buildings. The president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, has ordered his deputy prime minister in charge of transport and communication issues to remove satellite dishes installed on houses and buildings in capital city Asgabat and other major […]
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has criticised the proposed fees charged by RTÉ to allow channels of other stations to be broadcast on its free digital TV service Saorview. The BAI expressed concern that the prospect of any new channels being made available could be impacted by the proposed cost structure charged by the state […]