Up to 3.7 million UK pensioners who previously received a free TV licence will now have to pay for it. The BBC will abort blanket free licences for over-75s from June 2020. Any household with someone aged over 75 who receives Pension Credit will be eligible for a free TV licence funded by the BBC […]
Last week a meeting was held, hosted by the Technology Policy Institute in Washington DC, to hear various presentations and submissions on the increasingly vexed proposal by the C-Band Alliance to restructure 180 MHz of satellite spectrum over the US to help speed the roll-out of 5G. The meeting was held to review – and […]
A ban on telecoms equipment from Huawei would add about €55 billion to the cost of 5G networks in Europe and cause delay of about 18 months, according to reports seen by Reuters. The US added Huawei to a trade blacklist in May putting pressure on European countries to follow suit. The cost estimate is […]
YouTube’s plans to take down videos promoting hate speech and extremism – by removing thousands of videos promoting neo-Nazism, white supremacy and bigotry – continues Google’s modus operandi of taking action only when public dissent builds to a boil, according to the Digital Citizens Alliance (DCA), Speaking on the matter, Tom Galvin, executive director of […]
Media regulator Ofcom has confirmed that it will not conduct a formal competition assessment of the deal between BBC Studios and Discovery on UKTV. In April, BBC Studios and Discovery announced an agreement on the future of their UKTV joint venture. Under the terms, Discovery takes full control of UKTV’s lifestyle channels, while BBC Studios […]
A US Trade Commission judge has found that some Comcast receivers infringe TiVo patents, although also determined that another TiVo patent was invalid. Judge MaryJoan McNamara is also studying Comcast for infringing six Rovi/TiVo patents including: X1 Sports App, multi-room DVR features, and set-top box integrations of apps like Netflix. This is the second time […]
The US government is gearing up to investigate whether Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google misuse their market power with what could be an unprecedented, wide-ranging probe. The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice have divided oversight over the four companies, reports Reuters, with Amazon and Facebook under the watch of the FTC, and […]
An NBC affiliated station in the US has been blacked out because of a carriage dispute with DirecTV. KMTR (NBC 16) which serves viewers in Oregon, put out a statement on May 31st saying that DirecTV has “unilaterally decided to discontinue the carriage of this station”. KMTR is owned by Roberts Media and the Sinclair […]
Following successful legal action taken by Sky, licensees of three Scottish premises – Natalie Coggans, the Designated Premises Manager (DPM) of Woodhead Bar, Andrew Quay, DPM of Darroch Bar and Lorraine Robertson, DPM of The Grange – have each been ordered to pay £10,000 (€111,283) in damages for infringing Sky’s copyright by showing Sky Sports […]
South Africa’s Multichoice, which owns pay-TV operator DStv and controls the SuperSport cluster of channels, has filed a suit in the nation’s High Court against media regulator ICASA. The writ argues that Multichoice could go out of business if ICASA’s proposed regulation over Sports rights goes ahead. Multichoice asks the Court to order ICASA to […]