Advanced Television

Ofcom: Content providers, not platform responsible for VoD

January 19, 2012

Ofcom has backed VoD regulator ATVOD’s ruling that three Viacom companies – Nickelodeon , Paramount and MTV Networks – are responsible for the VoD content of Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV respectively on the Virgin Media platform.

The broadcasters had notified ATVOD last year that they considered Virgin Media to have “editorial responsibility” for the offerings, and that their services should therefore be removed from ATVOD’s directory of notified services.

In rejecting the three companies’ appeal against the regulator’s ruling, Ofcom took the view that ATVOD “made substantively the correct decision for the correct reasons”.

The decision means that the producer companies, rather than the serving platform, are responsible for ensuring that the services comprising VoD programming comply with the relevant rules.

Categories: Articles, Policy, Regulation, VOD