German financial watchdog Bafin has launched a probe into possible insider trading and market manipulation involving shares in German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere. The investigation focuses on trades that may be related to a correction of Premiere subscriber numbers last year, a Bafin spokeswoman said. Premiere also confirmed that the probe was under way but declined […]
Moves by European public sector broadcasters to expand their activities into new areas, such as mobile TV and video on demand, could be subject to more prior scrutiny under revisions to controversial proposals published by Brussels. The European Commission is in the process of revising its 2001 guidelines for applying EU state aid rules to […]
The Chinese government has ordered a crackdown on online video and audio content which could result in a tightening of internet censorship and limit the broadcasting of western films and entertainment programmes on the web. In a notice published on its website earlier this week, the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) published […]
An MPs committee has heavily criticized the BBC's commercial arm for damaging independent company's business with an aggressive sales tactics and a low priority on the bottom line. It was particularly scathing of the recent acquisition of the Lonely Planet guides. The committee was also deeply sceptical about the proposed tie up between BBC Worldwide […]
According to German press reports the federal compeition authorities are set to block any putitive merger of the country's major operators. There has been much specualtion that the major three networks, KDG, Unity and Kabel BW – all owned by private equity and all derived from the former Deutsche Telekom network – want to 're-merge' […]
Owners of the controversial Swedish BitTorrent website the Pirate Bay – currently embroiled in a copyright trial in Sweden – have announced they’re going to start using VPN (virtual private network) technologies to make its users harder to track. In typical 'pirate style' the unlogged VPN service will be called IPREDator, named after a new […]
About 200 reactions to the interim Digital Britain report have been published. Among highlights are Sky's call for Virgin's network to be opened up to third party services, Virgin's caution on Canvas and general skepticism on anti-piracy plans and the Digital Rights Agency. Sky says it is “increasingly anomalous” that the cable network is a […]
From IPTV World Forum Christophe Forax, the cabinet member of EU Media Commisioner Viviane Reding responsible for Networks and Convergence, told the plenary session the Commission was operating a policy of "platform neutrality" across all broadband networks. Forax refered to recent controversy on its directive to Dutch cable operators to allow third party access providers […]
The UK government's suggestion that the BBC should be part of the drive to make broadband universal in the UK would distort markets and distract the broadcaster from its main purpose in making programmes, BSkyB has suggested in its submission to the Digital Britain review headed by Lord Carter, the communications minister, BSkyB said the […]
Research from Coda Research Consultancy estimates that UK Internet users watch at least £1.3 billion worth of video content a year through illegal file sharing, and that video rights owners are losing at least £100m a year in lost revenue. Year-on-year increases in these illegal behaviours are irreversible, but can be slowed through the launch […]