South African regulator the Competition Commission has found that public broadcaster the South African Broadcasting Corporation and pay-TV operator MultiChoice have implemented a merger transaction, without notifying the Commission, in contravention of the Competition Act, and should now be investigated as such. On September 28th 2018, the Constitutional Court granted the Commission the right to […]
The world’s two largest satellite operators, Intelsat and SES, have enjoyed considerable share-price rises largely because of the “windfall” gains expected to flow from the re-versioning of their C-band frequencies over the US. One market commentator, having conducted a detail examination of the objections to the scheme, is extremely pessimistic, saying the C-Band Alliance’s (CBA) […]
The Spanish government plans to auction spectrum in the 700MHz band for 5G services in the first quarter of 2019. Currently, DTT channels are using that band, but will release it by March 2020. DTT migration is expected to commence in January of next year. The government aims to raise up to €1.05 billion with the […]
The European Commission is to initiate proceedings against two Member States for not complying with EU spectrum rules. Two letters of formal notice will be sent to Croatia and The Netherlands requesting full implementation of the European radio spectrum rules on the grounds of the 700 MHz Decision (EU) 2017/899. In line with these EU […]
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) will not oppose the proposed merger between Australian media and entertainment company Nine Entertainment and news, marketplace and entertainment assets owner Fairfax Media. The ACCC examined a number of markets affected by the proposed merger. Australian news, including online news, current affairs reporting and investigative journalism, was the […]
Comcast has won another milestone verdict in its long-running patent dispute with TiVo. The US Patent & Trademark office has said that one of TiVo’s patents which outlined how viewers could watch a show while viewing programme listings data, simply should never have been issued. Comcast has filed many applications to the Patent Office to […]
Canal+ and the French film industry signed a new agreement in Dijon at the annual Rencontres cinématographiques, in the presence of the new French Minister of Culture Franck Riester. The agreement, which renews the way Canal+ will contribute to the financing of the French movie industry and feature film projects, will be applicable over a […]
According to the 2018 How Google Fights Piracy report, the company has invested $100 million in building Content ID, its rights management tool, leading to over 3 billion URLs being removed from Search for infringing copyright. Writing in Google’s Public Policy blog, Cedric Manara, Head of Copyright, notes that the Internet has enabled people worldwide […]
In agreement with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, German anti-trust body the Bundeskartellamt has requested the referral of the Vodafone/Liberty merger case in as far as markets in Germany are concerned. In the middle of October, the parties had notified the European Commission that the Vodafone Group would like to acquire […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has a pile of detailed applications from operators looking to launch significant satellite ‘mega-constellations’. The FCC will vote on November 15th on applications from a number of would-be operators, and some which are seeking expansion approvals. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has already indicated that November is ‘Space Month’ as far […]