A leading UK competition lawyer has suggested that a takeover of Formula One by News Corporation would face “concerns” because of a conflict of interest. Paul Stone, head of competition and regulation for law firm Charles Russell says that “News Corporation’s involvement in the bid for Formula One could attract scrutiny from the competition regulators, […]
US senators have re-introduced a bill aimed at giving US authorities more tools to crack down on websites selling pirated movies, television shows and music and counterfeit goods. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, said the legislation would protect the investment American companies make in developing brands and creating content and protect the jobs […]
World soccer’s governing bodies FIFA and UEFA have appealed against a European ruling that the World Cup and European Championships must be on free-to-air TV in the UK. In February, the European Court ruled the UK could keep the events on a of “a protected list” of events shown for free. It means the two […]
Formula 1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone has warned Grand Prix teams that it would be “suicidal” for them if the sport moved to News Corporation’s subscription channels as part of a takeover deal. According to Ecclestone, who holds the sport’s commercial rights, teams would lose huge sponsorship interest if coverage was no longer on mass […]
Alongside its statement denying responsibility for the Sony data theft, hacker group Anonymous issued a warning to Viacom. It said that because of Viacom, “thousands of people have undergone the unfortunate experience of receiving falsely-claimed copyright infringements”. “Anonymous demands from Viacom a public press release to admit and apologise for the fraud and crimes that […]
Viacom International and production group Endemol have partnered to launch an entertainment channel with a global brand to target the female market. Viacom Blink! will debut in Poland later this summer on pay-TV platforms Multimedia Polska and N, offering more than a million Polish households a schedule filled with Endemol programmes. Overseen by Viacom International […]
A coalition of artists in music and film has sued CBS Interactive Inc. and CNET Networks, Inc. for mass-scale copyright infringement in Los Angeles federal court. This lawsuit is based on the defendants’ direct participation in massive copyright infringement on peer-to-peer (‘P2P’) systems, such as LimeWire, that are used to copy and distribute songs, films […]
The International Olympics Committee is meeting in June to decide on who should hold the broadcasting rights for the 2014 Winter Games and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games. 2014’s Winter Games are to be held in Sochi, Russia. Sports Business Daily says the IOC is to meet on June 6-7 at their Lausanne headquarters […]
Formula 1 owners CVC Capital confirmed a ‘friendly approach’ from News Corp (reported on ATV on April 20th) was joined by Italian investment company EXOR, controlled by the Agnelli family – once main owners of Fiat – and where the CEO is John Elkann, chairman of Fiat. Fiat owns Ferrari, F1’s most successful team. It […]
Sales of DVDs have collapsed in the last year falling 20 per cent according to figures released by the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG). Total sales from film-related DVD and Blu-ray discs in Q1 2011 fell from approximately $2.6 billion (Q1 2010) to $2.1 billion in the US. The DEG said the decline was related to […]