Chancellor George Osborne has announced a tax credit scheme for TV production and animation firms is to be introduced, in a bid to keep creative talent in Britain. Osborne said it was the government’s “determined policy” to keep Wallace and Gromit animators Aardman in Britain. Last month, Aardman bosses admitted they had been considering moving […]
India’s media regulator TRAI is looking at the altering the number of advertising minutes sold on Indian TV. A consultation paper (“Issues Related to Advertisements in TV Channels”) has been supplied to pay-TV and FTA channel operators asking for their comments. TRAI is proposing – for discussion – that FTA channels should be limited to […]
Lord David Puttnam, President of the UK’s Film Distributors’ Association (FDA), has stressed the importance of continued support and public investment in UK film distribution during this Olympic year and beyond, to allow UK cinema admissions and box-office to continue to flourish. He also used his keynote speech to the UK film industry to call […]
Digital entertainment products provider Rovi has appealed a court ruling in favour of Ziggo. Rovi originally took Dutch cable operator Ziggo to court in 2011, claiming breach of patents. The judge rejected the claims and Rovi is now appealing that decision. Rovi became, via companies Gemstar and Starsight, the owner of a number of EPG […]
A court in Germany has instructed file sharing website RapidShare to find a way to filter pirated content from its servers. This ruling came after a number of parties complained about the site, which allows users to upload and share content for download. The court indicated that RapidShare has a part to play in the […]
A 10-year old legal claim between EchoStar (and Kudelski) and against NDS has finally been settled. NDS has said that the US Supreme Court ruling made on January 23rd in favour of NDS has seen EchoStar pay $18.95 million in damages, legal costs and interest, over to NDS. The cash was paid over on March […]
BSkyB’s position as a dominant provider of premium movie content in the UK, which had been criticised in provisional findings from the Competition Commission (CC), is to be reassessed following recognition by the watchdog that market dynamics had changed since its August 2011 announcement. These include, in particular, that Netflix has launched a stand-alone ‘over […]
The UK’s largest mobile phone company, Everything Everywhere, should be allowed to offer its 27 million customers a 4G superfast broadband connection this year, according to Ofcom.. The media watchdog said it was inclined to approve an application from EE, which owns the Orange and T-Mobile networks, to launch a 4G network ahead of its […]
Commissioner Neelie Kroes, Vice President, European Commission, has confirmed in a meeting with European cable CEOs in Brussels that the European Commission opposes draft legislation by the legislator in the Netherlands to force cable operators to open up their networks to third parties Two particular amendments related to the Dutch implementation of EU Telecom Directive […]
Ofcom has lodged a complaint with the Dutch media regulator about adult chat channels which are licensed in the Netherlands but broadcast in the UK. Ofcom says channels such as Babestation and Smile TV are accessible by children on Freeview and considers they may be in breach of regulations regarding the promotion of website content […]