Advanced Television

Regulation

57% of DTR owners regularly time-shift their viewing

Top Up TV has revealed the results of a customer survey that revealed 57 per cent of its customers regularly use their Digital Television Recorder (DTR) to time-shift more than 50 per cent of the programmes they watch. “Our customers are time-shifting more than ever before… People want their TV viewing to fit in with […]

November 7, 2007

US TV writers strike over web revenue

Film and TV writers are to stage their first strike for two decades, after last-minute talks failed. The WGA wants writers to receive a slice of the additional advertising revenue that studios make when TV shows are streamed over the Internet. It also wants an additional reward for creating bespoke digital content for the Internet […]

November 6, 2007

Consumer TV buoyed by FCC action

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has prohibited all television service providers from entering into or enforcing exclusive access provisions that block competitors from serving apartments, condominiums or other private real estate developments. “Millions of consumers live in apartments, condos or other private developments, and, until now, many of them have been denied the benefits of […]

November 2, 2007

Far East Pay-TV piracy tops US$1.5 billion

In the latest survey of revenue leakage over the last 12 months to the regional pay-TV industry, conducted by the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) and Standard Chartered Bank, the losses are conservatively estimated to stand at $1.54 billion, (E1.06bn) as compared to $1.13 billion in 2006. While the China market remains […]

November 1, 2007

No tax on US Internet

The US House of Representatives has voted unanimously to extend a tax moratorium that was first adopted to promote US Internet access in the early days. The ban prevents local authorities from levying a number of potential Internet taxes, and is a victory for technology and telecommunications companies. While short of the permanent ban they […]

November 1, 2007

Senators want network blocking probe

Two US Senators have called for a congressional hearing to investigate allegations that phone and cable companies are stifling communications over the Internet and on mobile phones. Sens. Byron Dorgan, and Olympia Snowe, said the incidents involving several companies, including Comcast, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, have raised serious concerns over networks “power to discriminate against […]

October 30, 2007

No subsidies for DTV in North Rhine-Westphalia

The European Commission has decided that plans to finance part of the fees commercial broadcasters pay for the transmission of their programmes on the DVB-T network in North Rhine-Westphalia are not compatible with the EC state aid rules. The Commission said it fully supported the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, however, the proposed measures […]

October 26, 2007

ASA cans Sky ad

The UK ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) has banned a Sky advert following complaints over the claim that new and existing customers get equally good deals with the company. The advert claimed that Virgin Media’s policy was to give better deals to new customers, stated: “At Sky we think it’s wrong to advertise attractive sounding prices […]

October 25, 2007

ITU contemplate digital television spectrum

The US has led calls to allocate a significant chunk of the radio frequency spectrum for use by digital television. On the opening day the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), US delegation leader Richard Russell said it was important that countries identify sections or ‘bands’ of wavelengths to be used exclusively for advanced wireless services. The […]

October 24, 2007

Viacom won't back down on Google

Viacom has stated that it will not drop its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube parent Google. Philippe Dauman, Viacom’s chief executive, said that Google had not done enough to prevent content from being illegally uploaded to YouTube. Viacom, owners of MTV and Nickelodeon, claims that Google allowed more than 160,000 clips of its programming to […]

October 23, 2007