Hit international TV formats such as Big Brother and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? are being protected by the laws of copyright, unfair competition, passing off and breach of confidence, according to a report launched at MIPCOM by FRAPA — the Format Recognition and Protection Association.   The FRAPA Report 2011: Protecting Format Rights, […]

The English Premier League has lost its fight before the European Court of Justice which has ruled there must be a free market in the provision of programme services. The judgement will be very costly to those who sell exclusive territorial rights to sports and other events and will be costly and complicated for the […]

Scripps Interactive has completed the acquisition of Virgin Media’s stake in UKTV.   In completing the acquisition, Scripps Networks Interactive has acquired a 50 per cent common equity interest in the UKTV partnership and the outstanding preferred stock and debt owed by the partnership to Virgin Media. BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm and wholly owned […]

NAGRA, the Kudelski Group company, has acquired Sigma Systems’ Subscriber Information Service platform (SIS) business. As part of the business partnership, Sigma Systems will continue its product development and deployment support associated with the launch of the SIS business for NAGRA.   “NAGRA is committed to enabling advanced advertising capabilities, addressability in particular, for service […]

The BBC is firmly behind 3DTV, although Jo Sermon, BBC Worldwide’s director of content strategy, speaking October 3 at the MIPCOM programming market, said the BBC is also playing the long game in that 3D is suitable for play-out on tablets, smart-phones, laptops, 3D-based Internet as well as Blu-ray devices. Sermon told MIPCOM delegates that […]

The English Premier League may restrict the number of European countries that can screen its live matches if Europe’s most senior judges rule that it must sell its broadcast rights on a single market basis.   The European Court of Justice next week hands down its judgment in the so-called “’pub landlady case’ a ruling […]

Swiss-based iConcerts is ramping up activities for its connected TV launch, announcing distribution deals with key manufacturers Samsung, Toshiba Europe , LG Electronics , Philips and Panasonic who will all feature the iConcerts VoD music service on multiple platforms (TV, BD/DVD Players, set top boxes, tablets etc). The iConcerts connected TV app will roll-out throughout […]

The iPad app has been designed to let users pause, fast-forward and rewind the movies they stream. The app is free to download, but movies and TV shows can only be streamed by LoveFilm subscribers LoveFilm CEO Simon Calver said the launch marks an important step in its strategy to boost the portability of its […]

Pendrell Corporation announced that its subsidiary, Pendrell Technologies is to acquire 90.1% of privately-held ContentGuard Holdings, Inc., a leading inventor, developer and licensor of digital rights management (DRM) and related content distribution patents and technologies.   The Company will pay $90.1 million in cash to the current ContentGuard shareholders. ContentGuard and its management team will […]

Miramax has signed a multi-year agreement to bring its films to Hulu subscribers in Japan. Beginning immediately, Hulu subscribers in Japan will be able to instantly watch a wide variety of Miramax movies on multiple platforms, including Internet-connected living room devices such as TVs, Blu-ray players, and gaming consoles — in addition to PCs, tablets and […]