North American satellite operator ViaSat, best known for its satellite-delivered broadband services to American and Canadian users, hit satellite builders Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) with a writ back in February alleging violation of ViaSat’s patents. ViaSat is arguing that it supplied its design concepts to SS/L, and that SS/L then used the designs to win further […]
CASBAA boss Simon Twiston Davies has written to the Indian government protesting at a proposed new tax on international satellite operators working over India. The Indian proposals call for a 10 per cent “royalty” to be levied on foreign satellite communications. But perhaps worse, in the eyes of Twiston Davies, is that India is looking […]
Iranian-funded Press TV, which has already been banned by the UK’s regulator Ofcom, says it will institute legal proceedings against the Bavarian media regulator. The specific allegation argues that Munich’s media regulator has made an “illegal” decision to force SES to take down the controversial broadcaster. The channel went dark at 7pm on April 3 […]
The UK’s Video-on-demand (VOD) co-regulator ATVOD has cut its rates for the second consecutive year, driven by the arrival of new VOD entrants. All broadcasters and publishers of VOD services will have their fees, each paid according to turnover, cut by 3.58% from 1 April. Non-commercial providers including charities will pay an annual of £96 […]
Richard Hooper –a former Deputy Chairman of Ofcom – has published his diagnostic report on how fit for purpose is copyright licensing for the digital age. Hooper was appointed by Business Secretary Vince Cable to lead an independent feasibility study into a Digital Copyright Exchange (DCE) on 22 November. The report is based evidence collected […]
The UK High Court has ordered O2 to hand over the personal details of more than 9,000 O2 broadband subscribers to Golden Eye International and the adult programme producer Ben Dover Productions. Ben Dover is a pseudonym of Lindsay Honey, a British performer, director and producer of pornography, who set up Golden Eye International in […]
UK Mobile network 3 has warned is ready to take legal action against Ofcom and derail the already long-delayed 4G spectrum auction. The sell-off, which could raise as much as £4 billion (€4.8bn) for the Treasury, is scheduled for early 2013. 3, the newest and smallest mobile network in the UK with a 10 per […]
Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings has made the surprising admission that he believes arch-rival BSkyB should not have its movie channels regulated by the UK competition authorities. Hastings said that he was looking for a “fair fight” with Sky over content rights but that immediate regulatory intervention was not right. “Sky is a fearsome competitor, […]
O2 has voiced its anger at Ofcom for giving Everything Everywhere provisional approval to rollout a 4G network. O2 has said that Ofcom is contradicting itself by allowing Everything Everywhere to rollout 4G using its 1800MHz spectrum before its rivals. O2 believes this gives Everything Everywhere an unfair advantage which goes against Ofcom’s aim to […]
TiVo has announced an SEC filing that they and Microsoft had reached a settlement of all their patent litigation actions with each other. TiVo had filed suit alleging patent violations. Microsoft had counter-sued. TiVo stated that “no patent rights were granted to Microsoft” as a result of this agreement. The settlement, despite the vagueness of […]