Advanced Television

Policy

FCC to US cable: “C-band Concerns will be addressed”

FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly has told US cable operators that their concerns over the potential reallocation of C-band satellite spectrum over the US are being listened to. However, he also warned: “The entire government oversight model for video services needs a complete overhaul from top to bottom.” O’Rielly told delegates to a cable-sponsored conference (ACA […]

March 22, 2019By Chris Forrester

Jail terms for Premier League fraudsters

The operators of a pirate streaming organisation have today been jailed for a total of 17 years for conspiracy to defraud; some of the longest sentences ever issued for piracy-related crimes. Steven King, who masterminded the fraud, has been sentenced to seven years and four months’ imprisonment. Paul Rolston received a sentence of six years […]

March 21, 2019By Colin Mann

EC fines Google €1.5bn for abusing ad dominance

The European Commission has fined Google €1.49 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules accusing it of abuse by imposing restrictive clauses on clients preventing them placing their search adverts on rival websites. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “Today the Commission has fined Google €1.49 billion for illegal misuse of its dominant […]

March 20, 2019

File-sharing fraudsters sentenced

Four UK men who ran a file-sharing website which leaked films online – sometimes before they were released in cinemas – have received custodial or suspended sentences. Steven Pegram, Mark Rollin, Paul Taylor and Alan Stephenson were part of a group which uploaded films online for others to download via BitTorrent on their website ‘thefoundary.name’. […]

March 19, 2019By Colin Mann

Salisbury Openreach full fibre first

Salisbury will become the first entire city in the UK to gain access to Openreach’s new, future-proof Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband technology, in what is expected to be the fastest city-wide network build in the UK. The UK’s digital infrastructure company is aiming for its ‘Fibre First’ build programme in Salisbury to be completed within a […]

March 19, 2019

BBC chair: ‘Broadcast regulation not fit for digital’

The chair of the BBC suggests that the system of media regulation is no longer fit for the modern age, after the corporation was forced to delay plans to make more programmes available for up to a year on iPlayer. Sir David Clementi says that iPlayer’s 30-day catchup window is one of the main complaints […]

March 18, 2019

Japan: Mobile viewers must pay licence fee

Japan’s Supreme Court has ruled that people who use a mobile phone to watch TV programmes must pay a subscription fee to the country’s public broadcaster, NHK. The ruling confirms the existing Broadcasting Law can be extended to cellular phone users with suitable equipment. Judge Toshimitsu Yamasaki rejected two appeals challenging that the law applies […]

March 15, 2019By Chris Forrester

Euro Publishers back Spotify complaint against Apple

In the week that Spotify has launched an EU competition case against Apple for imposing unfair and discriminatory conditions on competing services in its app-store, European Publishers Council Chairman and CEO of de Persgroep, Christian Van Thillo, highlights that this same challenge is also faced by news publishers offering apps for media consumers. Van Thillo […]

March 15, 2019

UK report: ‘Tech giants increasingly dominant’

Tech giants have become increasingly dominant and UK government ministers must open the market up to increase consumer choice and give people greater control over their data, an independent review has concluded. Harvard Professor Jason Furman has warned that UK competition rules must be updated to be fit for the digital age. He cited the […]

March 14, 2019By Colin Mann

Facebook outage and criminal probe

Adding to the problem of its biggest outage to date, it was revealed on March 13th that Facebook is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors. They will be examining its data-sharing deals with other major technology companies, according to the New York Times. Facebook has given no explanation for the outages so far, though has […]

March 14, 2019