UK broadband providers are being asked to create a database of customers illegally downloading music, films and books, which could be used to disconnect or prosecute persistent offenders. BT, Virgin Media, BSkyB and TalkTalk are being approached by music and film companies to agree a voluntary code for policing illegal downloading. Negotiations have been under […]
Harsh? I don’t think so. Forget everything else, if a provider can’t do better than a voice loop telling you a lie about when the broadband service will be restored, it has no business pretending to be a TV service provider. There are, of course, plenty of question marks over a strategy that sees a […]
Open IPTV platform YouView – backed by a consortium of the UK’s broadcasters and telco providers – is looking to develop the service beyond its set-top box-based launch, reports the FT. Sources suggest that some shareholders are keen to extend service across a range of devices, including connected TV sets, smartphones and tablets. Any such […]
As if to give two fingers to arch-rival BT, BSkyB detailed a very long list of record financial and operational achievements in its 12-months (to June 30th) statement early on Friday morning (July 26th). It also introduced a new number, one that echoed cable’s old Revenue Generating Units, but in Sky terms it translates to […]
The English Premier League has secured a High Court order requiring ISPs to block football streaming site First Row Sports. The High Court ruled that the website, which didn’t host any live streams directly, was acting jointly with third party streaming services that broadcast public live footage of Premier League football matches. A Premier League […]
The French anti-piracy law that disconnected those suspected of illegal file-sharing after ‘3 strikes’has been overturned and replaced with a system of automatic fines. The “Hadopi law” succumbed to the pressure of the entertainment industry and would disconnect those suspected of online piracy. Users were first sent two written warnings, in what was called a […]
TalkTalk is offering customers three months of free TV, broadband and phone. The offer, branded “The Big Free”, gives TalkTalk customers three months of free YouView TV, unlimited broadband use and phone calls. The offer is available to both new and current TalkTalk customers. The package normally costs £15.50 (€18.2) per month and the £299 YouView […]
From January to March 2013, Ofcom received the most pay-TV complaints about BT Vision at 0.29 complaints per 1,000 customers. Increasing from 0.24 per 1,000 subscribers in the previous quarter, complaints about BT Vision remain six times greater than the industry average. Complaints were partly driven by problems with service provision and billing issues. Virgin […]
Europeans consumers are not getting the broadband download speeds they pay for. On average, they receive only 74 per cent of the advertised headline speed they have paid for, according to a new European Commission study on fixed broadband performance. According to commission Vice President Neelie Kroes, this is the first time the difference between […]
Liberty Global has announced that effective July 1st, Dana Strong will become the Chief Operating Officer of Virgin Media. Strong is currently Managing Director of UPC Ireland, the country’s leading broadband, communications, and entertainment provider, where she will remain as Chairman. In her new COO role, Strong will report to Tom Mockridge, who was recently […]