Advanced Television

Policy

Bakish: Charter, Disney showdown ‘inevitable’

Paramount CEO Bob Bakish says the stand-off between Charter and Disney is an “inevitable” consequence of the trends in DTC and pay-TV and their apparent incompatibility. He says ralationships have to “modernise” and says his company is a good example. “Frankly, it wasn’t a surprise, the exact timing was, but it was inevitable that something […]

September 8, 2023

Amazon: “Shareholder lawsuit has no merit”

A shareholder in Amazon (the Cleveland Bakers & Teamsters Pension Fund/CB&T) is suing the company alleging that Amazon snubbed potential launch contracts from SpaceX because of personal animosity between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Amazon, in a statement, said “the claims in this lawsuit are completely without merit, and we look forward to showing that […]

September 4, 2023By Chris Forrester

Charter vs Disney: ‘A line in the sand for pay-TV’

Charter Communications, where top Disney channels are blacked out from its 14.7 million US subscribers, sees its talks with Disney as a chance to fix a broken TV model. “Disney and Charter have the opportunity to work together on transforming the industry for the long-term benefit of both companies and consumers — but we are […]

September 1, 2023

Amazon hit by lawsuit over Kuiper broadband

A pension fund which is a shareholder in Amazon has filed a lawsuit against the directors of Amazon alleging that they failed to consider SpaceX as a launch supplier for the Project Kuiper broadband by satellite scheme. The writ, filed in Delaware’s Chancery Court, argues that the directors “acted in bad faith” in approving the […]

September 1, 2023By Chris Forrester

MPs identify 12 AI governance challenges

With their colleagues on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee calling for a Government rethink on proposed AI copyright exemptions, an interim report from the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee of the UK House of Commons sets out the Committee’s findings from its inquiry so far, and the twelve essential challenges that AI governance must […]

August 31, 2023By Colin Mann

More Disney stockholders sue over Disney+

As Disney shares sink to levels not seen in a decad,  the company has been hit with the latest lawsuit alleging it misled investors about the success, and the cost, of Disney+. Disney is being accused of obfuscating the extent of its losses, pushing lofty subscriber growth targets and claiming that the streaming service was […]

August 31, 2023

MPs call for AI copyright exemption rethink

The UK Government must follow through on its pledge and abandon plans to allow AI developers the free use of existing music, literature and works of art for the purposes of training artificial intelligence to come up with new creations, according to an all-party group of MPs. In its second report on connected technology, the […]

August 30, 2023By Colin Mann

RTL chief attacks junk food ad ban

Thomas Rabe, chief executive of the RTL Group, said that a proposal by the Green food and agriculture minister, Cem Özdemir, to ban junk food adverts was an example of the “overregulation” that was weighing down the largest economy in Europe. He says it would prevent broadcasters from showing adverts for unhealthy foods aimed at […]

August 30, 2023

SpaceX hit by DoJ discrimination suit

SpaceX is being sued by the US Department of Justice with allegations that the rocket company has been biased in its hiring of staff. The civil lawsuit alleges that SpaceX has deliberately not hired former refugees and asylum seekers. SpaceX “routinely discouraged asylees and refugees from applying and refused to hire or consider them, because […]

August 25, 2023By Chris Forrester

HMRC pay out to creative industries up 36%

Statistics show that HMRC paid out £1.66 billion (€1.94bn) in creative industries tax reliefs for the year to March 31st 2022 – a 36 per cent increase from the previous year. This was largely due to an impressive rise in high-end TV reliefs which have increased by 131 per cent to £829 million and now […]

August 24, 2023