The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has decided to not oppose the proposed merger of Fox Sports and Foxtel after finding the transaction would not substantially lessen competition. Currently, News Corporation owns 100 per cent of Fox Sports and owns Foxtel jointly with Telstra. Under the merger, Foxtel and Fox Sports will be brought […]
The Japanese Supreme Court has ruled that TV owners in Japan must pay a “receiving fee” to public broadcaster NHK. Up until now the payment was seen as an obligation, but frequently ignored. The particular case before the court concerned an individual who argued that he would not pay the fee because NHK was biased […]
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has pushed back the date for its provisional findings into the planned takeover of Sky by 21st Century Fox until January 2018. It had previously said the findings would be published in December, but has now said this will happen in mid-January. Karen Bradley, the Secretary of State […]
The alleged scandal in South Africa over pay-TV operator MultiChoice and whether it abused its influence with public broadcaster SABC has now reached the country’s parliamentarians. The opposition Democratic Alliance is calling for a full parliamentary enquiry into the damaging allegations. Consumer organisation Corruption Watch is making similar demands, while the Competition Commission says it […]
Forbes magazine’s news site says that the Saudi Arabian anti-corruption clampdown is till firmly in place, more than 1 month after a total of 320 wealthy businessmen were detained. A statement from the Kingdom’s Attorney General’s office says that 376 personal bank accounts had been frozen, with “most detainees” having agreed to a settlement with […]
ETSI has launched a new Industry Specification Group called Augmented Reality Framework (ISG ARF). This new group aims to synchronise efforts and identify key use cases and scenarios for developing an Augmented Reality (AR) framework with relevant components and interfaces. It will provide technical requirements for AR specifications in order to ensure interoperable implementations that […]
As Telecoms Ministers meet in Brussels, trade body Cable Europe is renewing calls for a regulatory framework which fosters private investment in high-speed broadband networks and improves the competitive potential of operators vis-à-vis traditional and over-the-top players. Ministers will today December 4th discuss progress made under the Estonian presidency on issues which should realise the […]
Australia’s Federal Government has formally directed the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) to commence an inquiry into digital platform providers such as Facebook and Google. The ACCC’s inquiry will look at the effect that digital search engines, social media platforms and other digital content aggregation platforms are having on competition in media and advertising […]
UK pay-TV broadcaster Sky showed a hard-hitting sexually explicit movie at 21.00 immediately after having screened 5 back-to-back episodes of The Simpsons. Broadcasting regulator Ofcom, in its report on a complaint received regarding strong language and sex scenes within an 18-rated action-thriller movie ‘Wanted’, said: “The complainant said that her 11-year-old son was watching and […]
The European Commission has presented measures to ensure that intellectual property rights are well protected, thereby encouraging European companies, in particular SMEs and start-ups, to invest in innovation and creativity. The EC said the initiatives would make it easier to act efficiently against breaches of intellectual property rights, facilitate cross-border litigation, and tackle the fact […]