BSkyB and Ofcom have reached an interim agreement on how to handle the period of Sky's appeal to the Competition Appeals Tribunal for Ofcom's wholesale price regulation order to be suspended. In essence, the terms of the WMO (Wholesale Must Offer) order are narrowed to specify, for now, the beneficiaries of lower prices as BT, […]

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has latched on to the disruptive technology formed when DLNA is combined with DTCP-IP and a form of high-bandwidth no-new-wire networking, and seems determined to use the opportunity to mandate the end of the pay-TV digital STB. The Commission wants to allow any CE manufacturer's devices to access pay-TV […]

The BBC is cracking down on re-streamers of its iPlayer services like TVCatchUp and Zattoo. "We took them [BBC channels] down and they will remain down and we will link to the iPlayer instead," CEO of Zattoo Beat Knecht told the Guardian. "This is to comply with a request of theirs; and it frees us […]

The UK privacy watchdog has joined nine other countries to push Google to adopt stricter privacy controls. Christopher Graham, the UK’s information commissioner, has joined countries including Germany, Canada and Spain in signing a letter challenging Google to protect its users more. The commissioner claimed the concerns of citizens across the world were “being forgotten” […]

The High Court in Dublin has ruled that an agreement between the Irish music industry and the country’s ISPs to address online piracy does not violate data protection laws. The ruling lays the foundations for the introduction of new graduated response measures to stem file sharing in Ireland. The High Court’s ruling considered the terms […]

The English Premier League is to challenge the decision by media regulator Ofcom to force pay-TV broadcaster BSkyB to sell its sports content to rivals at a reduced rate. The Premier League said it had decided to resist strenuously the ruling which it said would reduce the incentive for all broadcasters to invest in the […]

Abertis Telecom faces more competition charges From David Del Valle in Madrid The Spanish Competition Authority has started legal proceedings against domestic broadcasting agency Abertis Telecom over alleged abuse of dominant position in the distribution of TV signals. The case was taken to the CNC Competition Commission by SES Astra Iberica which accuses Abertis of […]

The head of the Federal Communications Commission vowed to press ahead with the broadband expansion plan despite a court ruling that undermined the agency’s authority to manage networks. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said that the appeals court ruling was narrowly cast and he issued a timetable for public comment and rulemaking on broadband goals ranging […]

One of the UK’s three biggest Internet service providers has declared it will not co-operate with measures to combat file-sharing set out in the government’s controversial digital economy bill. TalkTalk, which has more than 4 million UK internet users, said that objectionable provisions remain in the bill, including those that would allow content companies to […]

The UK Digital Economy Bill was passed in a series of compromise deals to get it on the statute before the election. The legislation has been forced through despite opposition from ISPs and others that it would punish innocent users with its powers to disconnect allegedly heavy down loaders. One of the main voices in […]