During the recent board meeting of AEPOC, Europe's Anti-piracy association for the protection of encrypted works and services, AEPOC discussed the "Pirate Bay" sentence in Sweden and the election of the "Pirate Party" into the European Parliament. AEPOC views the "success" of the Pirate Party, which questions the concept of intellectual property and copyright, and […]
About 73 per cent of Comcast and Time Warner Cable subscribers surveyed said TV Everywhere services — which promise access to a wealth of video online for no extra charge — are an “excellent” or “good” idea, according to research firm Solutions Research Group. However, SRG said, a significant number of respondents also expressed skepticism […]
The French competition authority has found that exclusive distribution agreements for pay TV content via triple play services should be restricted as they harm competition among ISPs and restrict consumer choice. The authority, whose advice was sought by the ministry of the economy, recommended that legislation be drafted to allow exclusive deals only for one […]
A U.S. judge dismissed some damages claims in a copyright infringement lawsuit against Google and YouTube.com but left open the possibility that non-U.S. based rights owners could seek damages for live broadcasts, if they prevail. A group of sports and music copyright holders, led by the UK Premier League, had argued that foreign works were […]
In-Stat says efforts to stop the 12 billion illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) downloads occurring annually in the US have come up short. In-Stat believes content owners and service providers need to shift from content protection to a two-pronged content monetisation strategy consisting of digital rights information management and offering a better user experience than illegal P2P […]
BSkyB and ESPN have struck a £65m (E75m) deal with the Scottish Premier League to air 60 live Clydesdale Bank Premier League matches each season across the UK and Ireland. The deal will last until the end of season 2011/12 with the SPL having an option to extend for a further two seasons. Lex Gold, […]
Cox Communications has decided to sell a majority stake in the Travel Channel in an auction expected to value the cable network at $600 million or more and break the drought in media industry deal-making. Scripps Networks Interactive, owner of the Food Network, is widely seen as the front-runner in an auction likely to test […]
From Colin Mann in Geneva Senior executives from the Kudelski Group have reiterated the company's commitment to OpenTV, despite its failure to take control of convergent media solutions provider. Kudelski has made a non-binding proposal to acquire all of the Class A ordinary shares of OpenTV not currently owned by Kudelski or its affiliates, for […]
From David Del Valle in Madrid The Spanish Competition Authorities have proposed to limit to three years (until 2012) the current contracts for football TV rights in a move to avoid dominant positions in the a market that generates around E1 billon a year. The measure would directly affect Mediapro, shareholder in La Sexta, that […]
Walt Disney Company has agreed to a management buy-out of its Jetix channels in Italy. The management team, led by MD Francesco Nespega has established Switchover Media to take control of two Disney-owned channels in the territory. The deal comes as Disney continues its Jetix rebranding effort across Europe, dropped the boy-skewing channel’s name in […]