News
The Independent reports:
“The Daily Mail & General Trust’s hopes of buying The Telegraph Group have been dealt a blow after media-buying agencies threatened to appeal to media regulator Ofcom if the deal went ahead.
Advertisers are concerned that a media group which owned both sets of titles would be able to demand higher advertising rates.
The readership [...]
Scotsman.com Business – Media & Leisure – Heat is on in hunt for C4 top dog
Decent article in yesterday’s Scotland on Sunday about C4’s hunt for Mark Thompson’s replacement.
The leading runners and riders appear to be as follows:
Kevin Lygo – C4’s Director of Television.
Dawn Airey – Sky Networks Managing Director
Jana Bennett – BBC�s Director [...]
Ofcom Website | Background
A very useful little guide to VoIP courtesy of Ofcom.
The former Carlton senior manager Ron Coomber will be the new head of the body that polices TV advertising in Britain.
As the director of the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre, it will be his task to drive the technological change that will enable the watchdog to cope with a huge increase in its workload.
Cable & Wireless surges back into broadband unbundling – ZDNet UK News
ZDNet writes:
By snapping up Bulldog, Cable & Wireless is taking aim at BT’s wholesale broadband market. Innovative high-speed services for businesses could follow
Cable & Wireless opened up a new assault on BT on Friday by purchasing Bulldog Communications for �18.6m.
This acquisition will [...]
Michael Prowse in the FT gives Ofcom’s Ed Richards something to think about over the bank holiday weekend.
In regard to establishing a central body to distribute public funds for PSB:
“…broadcasters would thus conceive of their public task as to satisfy the wants of a special type of consumer – Ofcom. As the public interest became [...]
Guardian reports on ITV’s lobbying to have the requirement to make public service programmes on the arts and religion scrapped, claiming that it would not be able to afford to subsidise them in a multichannel world.
MediaGuardian.co.uk | Media | ITV renews assault on public service remit
Vodafone reported annual profits of �10 billion today after sales increased by 10 per cent during the year to �33.6 billion.
The underlying figure, which was broadly in line with City forecasts, was achieved after the mobile phone company added 13.7 million new customers worldwide.
Caroline Marshall in the Daily Telegraph welcomes the decision to ‘beef’ up the ASA to oversee advertising across TV, print and radio. Article also suggests the ASA will oversee internet advertising, but not sure that’s actually correct.
Some complaints about the move – which will see the ASA jump from 80 to 170 staff at a [...]
FT: Robert Budden on VoIP
FT.com Home UK
FT outlines the continued growth of VoIP services and highlights Ofcom’s determination to get in on the action with a designated 056 number for IP telephony services – a clear indication that no new technology will escape attempts by the regulator to extend its remit. Citizen-consumer protection or empire [...]
End Of The Land Line?
BBC Online reports on a report by Sound Partners into fixed-mobile substitution which concluded that mobile operators could take 50% of fixed voice calls and 63% of the cash we pay for them by 2009.
Do land lines face being cut off?
Of course, broadband users will still need a fixed line. [...]
T-Mobile Deny 3 MMS Interoperability – Ofcom Appeal Likely
Mobile Today
An argument is brewing over T-Mobile�s reluctance to allow cross network picture messaging with 3 subscribers.
There has been mounting friction as incumbent operators have appeared to drag their heels in arranging MMS interoperability with the new network. 3 is keen that its customers have the same [...]
States, Feds Headed for VoIP Clash
States, feds headed for VoIP clash – News – ZDNet
New York Looks To Regulate VoIP
Networking Pipeline | Trends | VoIP: More Regulation Hassles
Networking Pipeline writes:
“Here we go again. This time, it’s New York state officials who have weighed in on VoIP (voice over Internet protocol), and they seem to think — much as California originally did — that VoIP service is a competitive telecom [...]
The Times’ Tempus writes:
BT’s Wider View of Broadband Should Secure Its Future
By Robert Cole
IT USED to be called the World Wide Wait, but broadband has made surfing the internet a pleasure. It costs a bit more than an old-fashioned dial-up connection but people clearly think it is worth paying more to end the frustration of [...]
Government Look For Digital Date
News
netimperative writes:
Culture secretary Tessa Jowell yesterday sent out a letter to broadcasters so as to establish an ‘appropriate’ timetable in relation to the conversion process.
Ofcom has been piling pressure on the government with a report sent out by the watchdog last month ranking the switchover from analogue to digital TV as [...]
US Congress: Convergence Could Be End of Regulation
ITworld.com – Lawmakers: Convergence could be end of regulation
The latest session in the US Congress into the failures – and potential redrafting – of the 1996 Telecommunications Act has heard evidence that suggests that new legislation would be outmoded before the ink is dry.
After hearing testimony from a [...]
Hodgson: �500,000 ITC Payout
Times Online – Business
Ray Snoody in The Times writes:
“Patricia Hodgson, the last chief executive of the Independent Television Commission, was paid about �500,000 when the ITC was succeeded by Ofcom, the new communications regulator.
The sum paid, which is thought to include compensation for loss of office, will ultimately be paid by the [...]
Ministers Remain Open To BT Breakup
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Ministers leave door open for telecom breakup
The Guardian writes:
The government has backed away from supporting a committee of MPs who believe BT should not be broken up. The government stance leaves the way clear for BT’s rivals to continue pressing for the move [...]
Ofcom and DTI Responses To Commons Committee Broadband Report Published
The House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee yesterday published responses from the Government and Ofcom to a report into the UK broadband market it published in February.
The responses confirmed that the Government’s and Ofcom’s determination to see greater competition in the provision of broadband and [...]
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