Sling Media, owned by Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network, has agreed terms with Belkin International over Belken’s alleged infringements of SlingMedia’s ‘placeshifting’ technology. The agreement was contained in papers filed on May 19th with the US International Trade Commission. Sling has asked the Commission to dismiss Belkin from its investigation into whether various other manufacturers were infringing six patents controlled by [...]
Cooperation between the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), the world’s standards body in electrotechnology, and ITU (the International Telecommunication Union) has produced a new metadata standard to enable rights information interoperability in IPTV services. This provides a standardised framework, such as that accompanying material under copyright, to ensure that multimedia content can be shared legally across different platforms. Recommendation ITU-T H.751 [...]
The BBC says it should start charging Sky for carrying its channels if it doesn’t drop retransmisson fees. Sky charges the BBC, and other public service broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, to carry channels on its pay-TV platform. The BBC pays £5 million (€5.9m) a year, with the four others footing a combined £10 million bill. The issue [...]
For some nine months India’s New Delhi TV (NDTV) a popular general entertainment channel, has been suing ratings agency Nielsen and ad agency WPP which jointly run India’s own ratings agency TAM Media Research. NDTV is arguing, in a $1 billion lawsuit, that it has lost “hundreds of millions of dollars” because of inaccuracies in TAM’s number crunching in India. [...]
In the coming weeks, the European Union will set important parameters to transatlantic trade negotiations. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) stresses that the inclusion of audiovisual services in the negotiations would harm the European audiovisual industry and dent European cultural diversity. “The audiovisual industry should be explicitly excluded from the European Union’s mandate to negotiate a Transatlantic Trade and Investment [...]
Uruguay last week cancelled the DTH transmission licence of Claro. Claro is ultimately owned by telco giant America Movil. At the time of the cancellation Claro said it would fight the Uruguayan decision. It has now changed it mind. Claro’s general manager Roberto Alvarellos now says that his company will do nothing, adding that the business has always set out [...]
YouTube owner Google has sent Microsoft a cease-and-desist order to try and stop it distributing its new YouTube app for Windows Phone. Google demands that Microsoft “immediately withdraw this application from the Windows Phone Store and disable existing downloads of the application.” Google claims Microsoft’s app violates YouTube’s terms of service by, among other things, preventing ads from showing in [...]
Ofcom is to preparing to crack down on the poor standard of subtitling of it says is common on UK TV by introducing a six-monthly quality check that will name and shame broadcasters into improving their services. Gaffes include asking for a “moment’s violence” during The Queen Mother’s funeral. Viewers are able to switch on a subtitles option for most [...]
CASBAA has commented on Vietnam’s ‘Decision 20′ pay-TV regulations which came into effect today. As a result of confusion over the regulations, one satellite provider has taken down 21 international channels. John Medeiros, Chief Policy Officer at CASBAA, said in response to media queries that the situation regarding Vietnamese regulation of the pay-TV industry is notably unclear. “Even Vietnamese operators [...]
at800 has revealed the results of its recent trials in South-East and West London. It revealed that there were no confirmed Freeview problems as a result of the 4G at 800 MHz testing. The results reflect the fact that there is a very strong digital terrestrial television signal in London, and that this is transmitted at frequencies clearly separated from [...]
