The BBC yesterday published building Public Value: renewing the BBC for a digital world‘ and thus puts forward its position in the wake of Ofcom’s PSB review and the upcoming Charter Renewal.
The manifesto covers nine key points:
* Building digital Britain
* Programmes and services that build public value through: active and informed citizenship; British culture [...]
The Times reports:
ITV Licence Fees
ITV�s licence fees could be cut by more than 40% under proposals to be published this week by Ofcom, the media regulator.
Ofcom will set out how it intends to value the licences over the next decade. Earlier this year the regulator rejigged the licensing timetable so ITV can rebid for [...]
DT Reports:
Ofcom’ should lose its powers’ over taste and decency
Sir Christopher Meyer, the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, believes that Ofcom, the new super-regulator for the media, should be stripped of its powers to censure broadcasters over matters of taste and decency.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Meyer, a former press secretary to John [...]
An article published this week in Wireless Review suggests that the merger between Wi-Fi and VoIP is a ways off (ten months). The short article makes a good point, suggesting that newer access points and phones are about ten months away. Indeed, if one desires the Quality of Service (QoS) algorhythms that are key [...]
As staff numbers at headquarters continue to grow -
Staff at the Ofcom Radio Technology & Compatibility Group laboratories at Whyteleafe were told today that the laboratories would be closing at the end of March 2005. Reasons given included that it would be some 40% less expensive to outsource the type of work undertaken at the [...]
As the first phase of Ofcom’s strategic telecoms review closes, ZDNet reports:
Ofcom urged to make BT more transparent – ZDNet UK News
The UK Competitive Telecommunications Association (UKCTA), which is made up of many of BT’s rivals, claims that the former incumbent is still in a position to block effective competition in the marketplace. In its [...]
Sorry, folks, been neglecting my OfcomWatch-ing duties lately. I completely missed this report, released in May by the BBC and The Work Foundation, and authored by Martin Brookes. The report, entitled, Watching Alone, Social Capital and Public Service Broadcasting, attempts to justify PSBs by reference to ’social capital’, a sort of social glue [...]
The following represents my personal, partial (and rather belated) perspective, on the Community Media Association �Festival of Community Media�, held at the Sheffield Showroom Cinema (Saturday May 15th).
LOCAL TELEVISION
It was stressed that the community media sector cannot afford to �wait to do local television�, subsequent to the Community Radio process running its course (the latter [...]
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Comcast is considering launching a 24-hour Children’s TV network aimed at pre-school kiddies, in partnership with the U.S. Public Broadcasting System, among others…
This content-specific area of U.S. cablecasting is currently dominated by Viacom and Disney.
E-consultancy.com : E-business Briefing
Mike Butcher’s E-Consultancy points out Ofcom’s remit creep in trying to put in place a labelling code for online content.
In his view – “It seems Ofcom can�t tell the difference between media that is requested rather than broadcast.”
After having been out-of-the loop for a bit (finalizing dissertation matters), I’ll just jump back in. Please forgive me if I am repeating anything that has been posted by my co-bloggers.
An all-star consortium of consultants (Analysys, DotEcon and Hogan & Hartson) have recently completed their study on Spectrum Trading. The report and annexes [...]
Last Tuesday Ofcom published it’s first public consultation over media literacy: “In an increasingly converged communications world, people face greater media choice. Changes in technology mean that parents may have to take more responsibility for what they and their children see and hear on screen and online.” It sounds like Ofcom may intend to put [...]
The FCC is proposing to permit the use of unlicensed wireless devices similar to Wi-Fi devices in unused portions of the VHF television frequency band.
Overlay (or underlay, depending on your perspective) use of unused or underutilized spectrum allotments is common in the United States under Part 15 of the FCC’s regulations, but historically certain frequency [...]
BT promises mobile price cuts
According to Computer Weekly:
BT has promised customers that it will pass on �penny for penny� cuts in call charges to mobile phones demanded by regulator Ofcom.
However companies have been warned that the reductions will not be uniform and that they should check their contracts.
Ofcom’s latest figures for broadband and DTV takeup shows that the UK has 4 million broadband users, with 40,000 new connections every week.
In its latest research on the digital TV and broadband markets, Ofcom found a decline in the use of narrowband, as consumers upgrade to broadband. 67% of adults connect to the Internet at [...]
Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) – Telecoms regulator Ofcom says it is cutting mobile call termination charges for Vodafone, mmO2, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and France Telecom-owned Orange.
The charge for Vodafone and mmO2 was cut to 5.63 pence from 8p a minute, while for T-Mobile and Orange it was trimmed to 6.31p from 9.5p.
Ofcom said average charges for September [...]
Latest from Ofcom