Advanced Television

Regulation

Ofcom relaxes ad rules

Following a consultation on the UK implementation of Brussels’ new Audio Visual Media Services (AVMS) Directive, Ofcom is changing its code on the rules for the distribution of TV advertising. Ofcom has ditched the 20-minute interval rule and the new code will also allow for one advertising break for every 30 minutes of a film, […]

July 25, 2008

UK crackdown on illegal downloads

The ISPs though have rejected demands from the music industry to cut people’s connections if they ignore repeated warnings. An estimated 6.5 million Britons were involved in illicit music downloads over last 12 months, a trend estimated to cost the music industry up to £1 billion in the next five years. The firms have also […]

July 25, 2008

Satellite operators call for EU to guarantee services

Satellite communications play a key role in achieving Europe’s objectives. As the Chairman of ESOA and CEO of Eutelsat, Giuliano Berretta, explained, satellites are “an integral and indispensable part of everyday life whether we talk about TV or emergency communication, connectivity in villages, mountains, islands, in-flight and at sea”. The European Parliament is now debating […]

July 25, 2008

FCC urged to reject MPAA exemption

But the groups said the waiver _will give the largest motion picture production companies veto power over the connections which are used to connect set-top boxes, receivers, high definition televisions, home theatre systems, digital video recorders and other consumer electronics devices, the groups said in their comments. This veto power will give media companies leverage […]

July 25, 2008

Court says U-verse IS cable service

AT&T failed to convince a federal judge to vacate a legal precedent declaring that U-verse TV is a cable service. The telco had petitioned the US District Court of Connecticut to declare as moot that court’s July 2007 ruling striking down a finding by the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control from 2006.That regulators, in […]

July 17, 2008

Cable Europe welcomes EU copyright review

Cable Europe, welcomed the decision of the European Commission to address the monopolistic way in which copyright collecting societies are organised in Europe. Cable Europe called for a new copyright collecting system that stimulates the development of new digital content services, and ‘future proofs' collections. Cable operators in Europe regard the Commission's decision (to order […]

July 17, 2008

OPTA forces Dutch cable TV to allow resellers

Dutch cable television operators will be forced to allow rivals to resell TV subscriptions under a draft decision by telecoms regulator OPTA. At the same time, OPTA plans to free the former telecoms monopoly KPN from some restrictions in the consumer market for telephony, saying competition was sufficient.KPN has long complained that it has to […]

July 16, 2008

YouTube and Viacom privacy compromise

Google has struck a deal to protect the personal data of millions of YouTube users in the $1 billion copyright court case brought against the video-sharing website by Viacom. Under the deal, Google will make user information and IP addresses from its YouTube subsidiary anonymous before handing over the data to Viacom in the US […]

July 16, 2008

Global broadband subscribers reach 370m

The Broadband Forum, formerly the DSL Forum, has announced the latest Broadband and IPTV statistics. The report shows that IPTV subscribers have more than doubled for the second year running with an increase of 53.14 per cent in the 12 months to 31 March 2008. The statistics also show that worldwide broadband subscribers have reached […]

July 16, 2008

Indian government orders feed share

The Indian government has made it mandatory for all broadcasters — representing about 350-plus television channels that are currently allowed to be beamed on cable and direct-to-home (DTH) platforms — to share their feed with Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS), IPTV and Mobile TV, the new cable distribution platforms that have emerged recently.A clarification issued by the Ministry […]

July 15, 2008