On October 24, UK media regulator Ofcom cancelled the licences of three channels (Babeworld, House of Fun and The Other Side). These channels are perhaps not the most important UK broadcasters, but now Ofcom is looking at the licensing of channels that do have a somewhat higher profile. Ofcom’s concerns revolve around who actually controls […]
A few weeks ago it was widely reported that China had ‘banned’ entertainment-type programming especially that emanating from Taiwan and which frequently employed ‘Western’ presentation styles and fashions. BBC Monitoring reports that speculation has arisen whether the state TV regulator has decided to stop Hong Kong and Taiwan entertainers from participating in mainland China’s […]
A bipartisan group of US House lawmakers has introduced legislation aimed at curbing online piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites, following the May 2011 introduction of similar legislation by the Senate. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (Republican, Texas) along with ranking member John Conyers (Democrat, Michigan) and Bob Goodlatte (Republican, Virginia), Chairman of […]
BT has been given 14 days to block access to a website accused of promoting illegal filesharing “on a grand scale” by Hollywood studios, in the first high court ruling of its kind under UK copyright law. Justice Arnold handed down a written judgement to BT – which, with about 6 million customers, is the […]
The operators of adult TV services ‘Babeworld’ and ‘House of Fun’ plus ‘The Other Side’ have all had their broadcasting licences revoked by UK regulator Ofcom. Ofcom’s ruling states: “In the course of correspondence and meetings with Ofcom, statements made by Babeworld Television Limited, House of Fun Television Limited and Forenzquick UK Limited about the […]
UK comms regulator Ofcom has invited comments on measuring media plurality, following a request to consider this area by the Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt. At the end of last year, in its report on the public interest test on the proposed acquisition of British Sky Broadcasting Group by News Corporation, Ofcom suggested that possible […]
Measures to combat illegal accessing and sharing of copyright material online should reflect actual consumer behaviour, rather than impose ‘carrot and stick’ remedies, according to panellists at the Westminster eForum Keynote Seminar on implementing provisions of the the UK’s Digital Economy Act relating to site-blocking and termination of Internet access . Campbell Cowie, Director of […]
The European Commission has proposed to spend almost €9.2 billion from 2014 to 2020 on pan-European projects to give EU citizens and businesses access to high-speed broadband networks and the services that run on them. The funding, part of the proposed Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), would take the form of both equity and debt instruments […]
Cable Europe, the association for Europe’s MSOs was swift to react to Commissioner Neelie Kroes’ recommendation to the European Parliament that €9 billion be spent on broadband infrastructure between 2014 and 2020 through the Connecting Europe Facility. Caroline Van Weede, Managing Director, Cable Europe says: “There is a case for state aid funding to make […]
A leading member of Australia’s Federal Attorney-General’s department is backing the creation of a self-regulated industry code between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and rights holders to combat piracy issues. A growing number of rights holders, service providers, user groups and copyright experts consider an industry code would be preferable to further litigation or copyright legislation. […]