Advanced Television

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SPPF sues YouTube

French independent labels collecting society SPPF has filed a lawsuit against YouTube for copyright infringement. The producers’ body said that more than 100 music videos from its catalogue, which had been taken down by YouTube in 2008 following SPPF’s request, were again available on the service in some form. SPPF is now seeking E10 million […]

June 18, 2009

Ofcom to crack down on ‘babe channels'

UK media regulator Ofcom is proposing to crack down on the amount of “sustained sex scenes and sexual language” shown on TV immediately after the 9pm watershed, to better protect younger viewers from explicit content broadcast free-to-air by so-called “babe channels” such as Playboy TV and Babeworld TV. ….

June 18, 2009

Japan tightens copyright law

Japan’s upper house has approved a revision to the Copyright Law making downloading of pirated content illegal. The revision will go into effect on January 1st. Uploading of pirated music and video content is already proscribed, but downloading has been tolerated as long as it is for personal use. Legislators have prescribed no penalties for […]

June 18, 2009

Verimatrix secure CANTV in Venezuela

Verimatrix has revealed that CANTV is the latest Americas customer to select the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS) for IPTV. Through a reseller partnership with ZTE, VCAS for IPTV has been integrated with ZTE's ZXBIV IPTV Eyewill solution for the CANTV deployment. In this initial deployment phase, CANTV plans to offer IPTV services with […]

June 18, 2009

EPL could sell Setanta rights

Despite receiving some money against the £35m (E41m) it is owed, the English Premier League has told Setanta if it does not pay the balance by Friday, 19 June, it will put its remaining games – 46 live matches in the 09-10 season – out to tender. “In view of the shortage of time before […]

June 18, 2009

Virgin and Universal unlimited music and policing deal

Virgin Media and Universal Music have unveiled plans for a digital music service designed to bring about a rapid and permanent change in the way UK consumers buy and listen to music. The service will enable Virgin Media broadband customer to both stream and download as many music tracks and albums as they want from […]

June 18, 2009

CA: $1.4bn in annual Revenue by 2014

In 2008 Conditional Access technologies earned revenue of nearly $1.3 billion worldwide and will continue to grow, adding nearly $105 million more in annual revenue by 2014, according to a new study from ABI Research. Cable generated the bulk of the revenue, followed by satellite and telco. This can be largely attributed to new deployments […]

June 18, 2009

Disney XD UK bound

Disney has confirmed it will replace Jetix with its Disney XD brand in the UK this August. The company has been gradually phasing out Jetix, having taken full control of the channel last year, and introducing Disney XD in its place.

June 18, 2009

NBCU raises anti-piracy profile

Signalling an increased emphasis on intellectual property rights, NBC Universal is moving one of its senior communication executives, Cory Shields, to a newly created position of executive vice president for global policy strategies. For the past three years, Shields has been the main public relations adviser to the NBC Universal chief executive, Jeff Zucker. “One […]

June 18, 2009

Virgin and Universal unlimited music and policing deal

Virgin Media and Universal Music have unveiled plans for a digital music service designed to bring about a rapid and permanent change in the way UK consumers buy and listen to music. The service will enable Virgin Media broadband customer to both stream and download as many music tracks and albums as they want from […]

June 16, 2009