Advanced Television

Regulation

EC criticises Saudi piracy support

The European Commission has published a major report in which it singles out Saudi Arabia for “causing considerable harm to EU businesses” following the two-year theft of European sport programmes by Saudi-based beoutQ and Arabsat. The report sets out priority countries – only 13 worldwide – on which “the EU will focus its action” regarding […]

January 27, 2020By Colin Mann

DOCOMO: 6G by 2030

Japanese telco NTT DOCOMO has released a white paper on the topic of 6G, the sixth-generation mobile communications system that the company aims to launch on a commercial basis by 2030. It incorporates DOCOMO’s views in the field of 5G evolution and 6G communications technology, areas that the company has been researching since 2018. The […]

January 27, 2020

CBA emphasises costs of satellite transition for FCC

The C-Band Alliance (CBA), in a batch of filings to the FCC, has broken down the costs of clearing transmissions as part of its workload for the final reallocations of bandwidth for 5G over the US. It reminds the FCC that clearing spectrum for the 35,000 cable and IPTV operators across the US is a […]

January 27, 2020By Chris Forrester

UTECA urges OTT regulation

UTECA, the private TV Association in Spain, has urged the Administration to approve a new law to impose the same TV obligations on OTT services to put an end to a discriminatory situation. Under the new legislation to be approved by the Government, OTT players like Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, Sky, DAZN or Filmin, among […]

January 23, 2020From David Del Valle in Madrid

Hallmark chief quits over same-sex ads

Hallmark’s television CEO Bill Abbott is leaving the company weeks after the Hallmark Channel suffered a withering backlash when it pulled commercials that featured a same-sex wedding. Abbott had been chief of Crown Media for 11 years. In December, after pressure from a conservative group, the Hallmark Channel removed four commercials that showed brides kissing […]

January 23, 2020

UK sticks to digital tax in April

UK Chancellor Sajid Javid has told the Davos meeting he will not back down over the introduction of a new sales tax on large US tech firms. The US threatened it would consider retaliatory tariffs on UK car makers if the measure goes ahead. The new tax is aimed at firms that do a lot […]

January 22, 2020

£18K fine for Sky Sports pub pirate

Thomas Conneely, owner of the Dick Whittington in Watford, has been convicted in his absence of three offences of dishonest reception of a television transmission, in this case, Sky televised football matches, with the intent to avoid payment of the applicable charge. Sky Sports is only available to licensed premises in the UK via a […]

January 22, 2020By Colin Mann

Portuguese government to review DTT channel offer

Portugal’s Secretary of State for Cinema, Audiovisual and Media, Nuno Artur Silva, has promised an imminent “reassessment” of the national DTT offer. Speaking during a Parliamentary hearing, he promised to resolve the issue of surplus capacity on the first national DTT multiplex, managed by Altice Portugal’s unit Meo, adding that the Government will consider the […]

January 21, 2020From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Vodafone boost for UK full-fibre

Multiplay telco Vodafone has revealed plans to accelerate the roll out of full-fibre broadband in the UK by restructuring its existing deal with broadband infrastructure provider CityFibre to encourage it to build its fibre infrastructure more quickly and to more places. With full-fibre broadband still only available to around 11 per cent of UK premises, […]

January 21, 2020By Colin Mann

Tony Hall quits as BBC DG

Tony Hall is leaving as director general of the BBC in the summer, after seven years in the role. Lord Hall said it had been “a hard decision”, adding: “If I followed my heart I would genuinely never want to leave”. He said he felt it was important the BBC had the same leader for […]

January 20, 2020