A licensee has had a conviction for screening foreign satellite football overturned by the High Court in London. A pub in the Midlands was originally convicted and fined £500 (€600) in June 2009 for showing games using an Arab Radio and Television (ART) Network system, after the case was brought by Media Protection Services (MPS). […]
The Spanish Competition watchdog, CNC, has imposed a E500,000 fine on Mediapro, shareholder in La Sexta, for abuse of dominant position in football TV rights. CNC argues that Mediapro is abusing its competitive position by hindering the exploitation of football TV rights to the Spanish Football League and the King’s Cup by other TV operators. […]
International Launch Services (ILS), the Washington-located company that is best known for its Proton rocket launches from Kazhakstan, is complaining to the European Union about what it claims is the unfair subsidisation of arch-rival Arianespace satellite launch activities. Ariane launches its rockets from Kourou in French Guiana, and on March 17th received a €250 million […]
The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organisation dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, has revealed the formation of the MeeGo Smart TV Working Group. MeeGo is an open source Linux project targeting multiple segments including automotive systems, netbooks, tablets, TV’s, and set-top boxes, among others, and uses Qt to enable cross-device applications. The Working Group […]
Brightcove, the online video platform, has licensed Adobe Pass authentication and authorisation technology and has become a certified Adobe Pass Enablement Partner. Brightcove is using the technology to offer new TV Everywhere authorisation services to broadcasters, cable programming networks, and distributors to streamline their initiatives to provide on-demand access to TV content across both Adobe […]
UK rights holders from the music and film industries have identified about 100 websites that they want ISPs to block. Under a voluntary code content owners and ISPs are trying to work out, rights owners would pass evidence of illegal filesharing sites to ISPs, which would then take action against those sites. However, the proposals […]
Ofcom has launched a consultation on how best to sell off the rights to the next generation of mobile networks. The auction of 4G spectrum will be the biggest ever, equivalent to three quarters of the mobile spectrum in use today. The last Ofcom mobile network auction for 3G in 2000 it raised £22.5 billion […]
The UK government has admitted that it cannot implement legislation to curb Internet piracy until spring 2012 at the earliest, as it prepares for a legal battle in the High Court. The already-delayed Digital Economy Act (DEA) will be challenged by BT and TalkTalk this week in a judicial review. The two companies aim to […]
Germany’s competition regulator has prohibited the joint venture video portal proposed by RTL and ProSiebenSat.1. Following an earlier finding that the platform would have to be opened up, the companies had not agreed to offer concessions and therefore the Bundeskartellamt had decided to disallow the project. As expected the regulator ruled that, as currently formulated, […]
UK media regulator Ofcom is to review how advertising deals are handled. The review is the first in-depth look at the UK airtime trading system as Ofcom admits there has been “perennial anxiety” over whether the system is being abused. Ed Richards, Ofcom CEO, said “The time is now right to consider whether there are […]