A long-running patent dispute between TiVo and cable giant Comcast has seen Comcast again emerge victorious at a US Patent Trial and its subsequent appeal. The Patent Board says TiVo’s Patent 9,172,987 is invalid. The case was brought by Comcast against Rovi (see below for patent description) in May 2016. The patent relates to a […]
The increasingly bitter dispute between sports rights broadcaster beIN and the pirate organisation beoutQ has seen the Wall Street Journal report that payments in Saudi Arabia for access to the pirated services from beoutQ allegedly go to a business controlled by Raed Khusheim. Khusheim is CEO at Selevision. Selevision is a UAE-based DTH and VoD […]
Content protection and multiscreen television solutions provider NAGRA and Portuguese premium sports network SPORT TV, are joining forces in the fight against streaming piracy of live sports content. SPORT TV, which owns the exclusive rights to Portugal’s football league, leverages NAGRA Anti-Piracy Services to protect the premium sports network from illegal live streaming of soccer […]
Two licensees from Skelmersdale in the northwest of England have been found guilty of ten offices of dishonest reception of a television transmission by showing Sky Sports to customers without a commercial agreement from Sky. Sara Jones and Karl Jones of the Old Toby Inn in Skelmersdale have been ordered to pay £10,908 (€12,156) after […]
Newzroom Afrika has been confirmed as the successful news channel bidder after DStv pulled the plug on Afro Worldview, previously owned by the Guptas as the highly controversial ANN7 news channel. Commercial terms for the carriage have not been released, although there is strong pressure in South Africa for the contract terms to be made […]
The European Commission (EC) is looking to set a 30 per cent “local quota” on video streaming operators such as Netflix and Amazon Studios for their European output. Reportedly the EC will vote on the proposal in December. Equity analysts at investment bank Exane/BNPP, quoting a Variety story, say that the new rules will not […]
Thomas Bach, the President of the International Olympic Committee, has deemed eSports as being too violent to be part of the Olympics. Bach said the “so-called killer games” which promote violence or discrimination cannot be accepted into the Olympic Games. “If you have egames where it’s about killing somebody, this cannot be brought into line […]
During the 75th Venice International Film Festival, some 165 screenwriters and directors across Europe have come together in the “Venice Declaration” to call on the European Parliament to adopt legislation that puts authors at the heart of copyright and of the European cultural and creative industries, including online. On September 12th, the members of the […]
Freedom of the press is often cited as a basic requirement of a genuinely free and democratic society. And it is true that a universal early symptom of advancing authoritarianism is curbs on a free press: look at Russia, look at Turkey, look at any historical example of a totalitarian takeover of any previously free […]
Earlier in August Nigeria’s Federal High Court ordered MultiChoice Nigeria to stop an increase in pay-TV subscription rates that it had imposed on its DStv service. The price hikes averaged some 7.5 per cent. MultiChoice ignored the ruling, brought in an action by the nation’s Consumer Protection Council (CPC). The Court’s interim ruling was made […]