Following a consultation on the UK implementation of Brussels’ new Audio Visual Media Services (AVMS) Directive, Ofcom is changing its code on the rules for the distribution of TV advertising. Ofcom has ditched the 20-minute interval rule and the new code will also allow for one advertising break for every 30 minutes of a film, […]

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The results for the second quarter and first half of 2008 are again at record levels, both in terms of sales and profitability. This quarter marks the fifteenth consecutive quarter of double digit year on year sales growth by MTG.” Meantime, MTG is reported to be among […]

Erik Huggers has been confirmed by the BBC as its new director of future media and technology, replacing Ashley Highfield. The BBC has also hired Roo Reynolds, who is currently a ';metaverse evangelist' at IBM, will join the corporation as portfolio executive for social media, with a role across BBC Vision. Reynolds, who has been […]

Cable Europe, welcomed the decision of the European Commission to address the monopolistic way in which copyright collecting societies are organised in Europe. Cable Europe called for a new copyright collecting system that stimulates the development of new digital content services, and ‘future proofs' collections. Cable operators in Europe regard the Commission's decision (to order […]

AT&T failed to convince a federal judge to vacate a legal precedent declaring that U-verse TV is a cable service. The telco had petitioned the US District Court of Connecticut to declare as moot that court’s July 2007 ruling striking down a finding by the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control from 2006.That regulators, in […]

The Broadband Forum, formerly the DSL Forum, has announced the latest Broadband and IPTV statistics. The report shows that IPTV subscribers have more than doubled for the second year running with an increase of 53.14 per cent in the 12 months to 31 March 2008. The statistics also show that worldwide broadband subscribers have reached […]

Dutch cable television operators will be forced to allow rivals to resell TV subscriptions under a draft decision by telecoms regulator OPTA. At the same time, OPTA plans to free the former telecoms monopoly KPN from some restrictions in the consumer market for telephony, saying competition was sufficient.KPN has long complained that it has to […]

Google has struck a deal to protect the personal data of millions of YouTube users in the $1 billion copyright court case brought against the video-sharing website by Viacom. Under the deal, Google will make user information and IP addresses from its YouTube subsidiary anonymous before handing over the data to Viacom in the US […]

The Indian government has made it mandatory for all broadcasters — representing about 350-plus television channels that are currently allowed to be beamed on cable and direct-to-home (DTH) platforms — to share their feed with Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS), IPTV and Mobile TV, the new cable distribution platforms that have emerged recently.A clarification issued by the Ministry […]

Set-top box manufacturer Pace has maintained progress across all of its global markets in the first half of 2008. Due to a beneficial US Dollar/Euro exchange rate, the Pace France business, which was initially expected to be loss making for 2008, is now profitable and the board expects that the group’s out-turn for the year […]