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Business

Brazil approves pay TV law

The long-awaited Brazil ‘Bill 116’ which sets out a new broadcasting regime for pay TV has received its final assent. Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff made only two minor veto amendments, but the rest of the Bill now passes into the rule book. The two minor exceptions cover call center activity, and content classification, which stays […]

September 16, 2011By Chris Forrester

Optus calls for content sharing standards

Optus chief executive, Paul O’Sullivan, has urged the Australian government to create sharing provisions for digital content services provided over the National Broadband Network (NBN). He said that it was essential that rules were put in place so that “the guys with the biggest wallet” could not lock up content that allows telecommunication companies to […]

September 16, 2011

Madras DTH hit with 30% tax

DTH broadcasters beaming programming over the state of Tamul Nadu must pay a 30 per cent entertainment tax, local reports state. The idea is said to ensure continued support for State-backed Arasu Cable. The tax will directly hit Sun Direct, the local DTH player, with a 17 per cent market share. Other media-related taxes levied […]

September 16, 2011By Chris Forrester

Hunt: Radical Comms Bill to come

Politicians could be barred from making decisions on media mergers under measures to be included in a new communications bill, the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said. The proposal would end the arrangement under which the business secretary can block the acquisition of media companies on public interest grounds. Hunt told the Royal Television Society […]

September 15, 2011

SeeSaw on brink

SeeSaw, the UK VoD service, has yet to receive the investment promised as part of its spin-off to Criterion Partners from Arqiva – and platform controller John Keeling, commercial director Matt Rennie and product director Richard Dines all quit yesterday. Criterion acquired a majority of SeeSaw from Arqiva this summer, but investment promised by Weston […]

September 15, 2011

Hunt: Unlawful distribution is theft

UK culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has countered suggestions that tackling the problem of material that is being unlawfully distributed online is an assault on the “freedom” of the Internet. He told the Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention that unlawfully distributing copyrighted material was “theft, and a direct assault on the freedoms and rights of creators […]

September 15, 2011By Colin Mann

ARCEP receives four applications for 4G

French media regulator ARCEP has received four applications by the deadline for licences to spectrum in the 2.6 GHz and 800 MHz frequency bands, to be used for ultra high-speed mobile networks. The four applications came from: Bouygues Telecom, Free Mobile, Orange France and Société Française du Radiotéléphone (SFR). ARCEP will now examine these applications, […]

September 15, 2011

BSkyB: Still good value

Investment bank Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients, reminds investors that BSkyB is delivering a  “resilient operating performance”. Despite the high-profile traumas of the past few months, BSkyB just goes rolling along, delivering “solid top-line growth….improving margins…. and a “natural reservoir of growth given that only 28 per cent of Sky’s customers take its […]

September 15, 2011By Chris Forrester

Canoe appointments

As part of a broader reorganisation this summer, Canoe Ventures has hired Jonathan Bokor as general manager in charge of interactive TV solutions, promoted Chris Pizzurro to be GM of VoD advertising solutions and recruited Sanjay Patel as vice president of marketing. Last month, Canoe CEO Kathy Timko reshuffled the senior management team of the […]

September 15, 2011

Google: ‘We can’t block sites’

Getting its defence in early, Google has said it would be unworkable for it to block entire sites. In a speech to the Royal Television Society on Wednesday it has been widely trailed that UK culture secretary Jeremy Hunt will call on search engines, ISPs and transaction companies to play a more active role in […]

September 14, 2011