Advanced Television

Regulation

EU copyright reform stalls

EU reforms to copyright rules stalled this week as a meeting of Euro MPs and officials was called off, with publishers blaming Google and other tech giants for lobbying against the changes. The European Commission says the overhaul is necessary to protect Europe’s cultural heritage and level the playing field between big online platforms and […]

January 21, 2019

Premier League condemns beoutQ piracy

The Premier League has issued a statement saying that it is aware of new evidence presented by beIN Media Group, which further demonstrates that its content is being illegally broadcast in Saudi Arabia and made available in several countries across the Middle East by the beoutQ pirate channel. “Like other sports and content providers, our model […]

January 21, 2019By Colin Mann

Analyst: beIN dispute hits MENA pay-TV subs

Pay-TV revenues for 20 MENA countries fell by 11 per cent between 2016 and 2018 to just under $3 billion (€2.64bn), according to analyst firm Digital TV Research. Given the hangover from the beIN ban and falling ARPUs, revenues in 2024 ($3.28 billion) will still be lower than in 2016 ($3.36 billion). Five countries will […]

January 21, 2019

RT seeks judicial review of Ofcom breach decision

News and current affairs channel RT is to seek a judicial review of the December 20th finding by UK broadcast regulator Ofcom that RT had broken broadcasting rules by failing to preserve due impartiality in seven news and current affairs programmes over a six-week period. A Statement from RT said: “Today RT has informed Ofcom […]

January 18, 2019By Colin Mann

UK: £20m local creativity boost

Five locations across England will receive a share of £20 million (€22.68m) to invest in local culture, heritage and creative industries and help drive economic growth. In the first government investment of its kind, Grimsby, the Thames Estuary, Plymouth, Wakefield and Worcester will use the funding on local cultural plans which are tailored to the […]

January 18, 2019

Singapore to update copyright regime

The Singapore government has announced that it will be amending the Copyright Act to update its copyright regime in an effort to support creators and users  of video content. A critical part of the suite of amendments includes new enforcement measures to deter retailers from profiting from providing access to content through unauthorised sources such […]

January 18, 2019By Colin Mann

beIN exposes beoutQ rights ‘theft’

A ‘reveal all’ website has been published by pay-TV operator beIN Media Group which it claims publicly exposes what it describes as the “industrial scale theft” of world sports and entertainment carried out by beoutQ – the Saudi Arabia-based pirate TV channel – and Arabsat – the Riyadh-headquartered satellite provider – for the past 18 […]

January 17, 2019By Colin Mann

Roku U-turns on InfoWars

Roku has U-turned on its addition of InfoWars – the right-wing conspiracy channel of Alex Jones. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Apple and others had all banned the channel but Roku had defended its carriage claiming it did not censor legal content. But after facing widespread criticism Roku has responded by dropping the channel. The California-based company […]

January 16, 2019

YouTube bans ‘dangerous prank’ videos

YouTube videos that feature dangerous or emotionally distressing pranks have been banned from the video-sharing platform. The move comes in response to so-called “challenges” that have sometimes resulted in death or injury – with the latest trend that has seemingly spawned the action seeing challengers attempt to complete every day tasks whilst completely blindfolded, inspired […]

January 16, 2019By Nik Roseveare

Vimeo to pay €8.5m in damages to Mediaset

A Rome Court has ordered Vimeo to remove all contested videos from Mediaset and reimburse €8.5 million to the Italian broadcaster. Mediaset had sued the US-based online video platform for publication and the non-removal of videos taken from copyrighted TV programmes. Furthermore, Vimeo will have to prevent new uploads of unauthorised contents, under risk of […]

January 15, 2019From Branislav Pekic in Rome