According to French daily Le Figaro, the French National Cinema Institute is to slightly trim the special tax levied on broadcasters to support French cinema. The tax could drop from 5.65 per cent of a broadcaster’s advertising revenue to 5.15 per cent. However, OTT services such as Netflix, will see their tax rate rise from […]
Comments from investment bank Exane/BNPP are very specific in stating that the long-awaited C-Band Alliances scheme to auction some of its C-band spectrum for 5G deployment over the US looks like being decided on a highly favourable basis to the Alliance. The bank reports on comments made by FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly and helped by […]
Mark Thompson, President/CEO New York Times, has suggested that the BBC, where he was Director General between 2004 and 2012, has suffered at the hands of British policy makers over the last decade or so, limiting its potential to bring British talent and British ideas to the world’s audiences, calling for a fundamental change in […]
French PSB groups France Télévisions, Radio France, France Medias Monde and INA are set to be overseen by a newly-created holding group, France Médias. Arte France and TV5 Monde, which are owned by international shareholders, won’t be included, but will “participate in the new dynamics”. Youth and family channel France 4, as well as overseas […]
FCC chairman Ajit Pai is optimistic that there will be “results to show” this autumn on the issue of the C-Band Alliance’s (CBA) plan to auction some of its spectrum over the US for 5G repurposing. Pai was addressing delegates at America’s Spectrum Management Conference in Washington DC on September 24th. He said: ˜We’re also […]
The World Broadcast Unions (WBU) – in the light of initiatives by the FCC in the US, Ofcom in the UK, and other national administrations concerning potential C-Band Broadcast Spectrum (3.7 to 4.2 MHz) reassignment for 5G – is expressing their concerns over programme collection and distribution and the potential impact on hundreds of millions […]
YouTube has reversed a decision that would have seen many of its popular video-streamers stripped of their ‘verified’ status badge. The proposed change was supposed to make the ID check more rigorous and help remove impersonators. Instead, the change was seen as stripping established YouTubers of their standing and hobbling their chances to prosper on […]
A French court ruling on in a case brought by the French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir against Valve found that purchasers of video games on Valve’s digital platform, Steam, are permitted to resell them. This ruling contradicts established EU law and should be overturned on appeal, according to the IFSE, which represents the interests of […]
The UK Culture Secretary, Nicky Morgan has pushed for the biggest events in women’s sport to become ‘listed events’ on free-to-air TV, so that mass audiences can watch them and be inspired by the achievements of our women sport stars. Morgan also encouraged public service and commercial broadcasters to do more to secure their future […]
UK broadcast regulator Ofcom has published final conclusions on the relationship between BritBox – a proposed new streaming service from ITV and the BBC – and the BBC’s publicly-funded (or ‘Public Service’) activities. As required under the Corporation’s Charter and Agreement, Ofcom has assessed whether the BBC’s involvement in Britbox represents a ‘material change’ to […]