December 15th 2004
By: Luke
Ofcom this morning proposed to free more of the country's airwaves to ensure the growth of digital radio stations.
In the first stage of a major review of commercial radio, the watchdog said that digital radio offered 'significant benefits to both broadcasters and listeners', including broader choice, better services and a ...
December 14th 2004
By: Russ
Today's Mediaweek has two pieces on Ofcom, mostly praising the regulator for such an effective first year. I'll post my thoughts later in the year.
Ian Quinn's article approaches Ofcom from an industry reputation perspective and a perspective of key issues (e.g., alcohol advertising). Maybe that's appropriate, but ...
December 14th 2004
By: ChrisMarsden
Quick dates for the diaries: there's a seminar on OfCom's telecoms review on 10 January at OII - with Martin Cave, Alan Bell (both OfCom and Oftel insiders - from Cruikshank days and before) and Nick Garnham, the eminence terrible of Euro-comms policy.
Following that, on 19/20 January, there's the Oxford ...
December 14th 2004
By: Luke
A quarter of households believe that the BBC is not worth the licence fee, former chair of the BBC Governors Gavyn Davies said yesterday.
Research commissioned while Mr Davies was still with the corporation and published yesterday by the Social Market Foundation, showed that six million households were unhappy paying the ...
December 14th 2004
By: monica
Last Friday I attended a Workshop on the Future of European Communications Policy (check webpage in the future for slides) at Manchester Metropolitan University. Among the participants were Alex Blower (Head of Policy Development at Ofcom) and David Levy (Controller, Public Policy at the BBC), as well as professors Peter ...
December 14th 2004
By: Luke
Ofcom today announced that all 18 digital replacement licences (DRLs) offered by Ofcom to the main commercial terrestrial broadcasters have been accepted.
Last month Ofcom published the final DRLs offered to the broadcasters. Sections 215 and 221 of the Communications Act 2003 oblige Ofcom to make an offer of a ...
December 13th 2004
By: Luke
The Business newspaper reported yesterday that...
"Ofcom is to announce a second round of 3G licence auctions with the disposal of 13 separate parts of the radio spectrum. The new bidders, expected to include BT and Virgin, will be able to offer cheaper 3G services than existing operators such as ...
December 10th 2004
By: ChrisMarsden
Those of us in the Internet biz missed Lord Currie's call for an open debate about Internet regulation, delivered to a luvvie crowd at the Royal Television Society Fleming Memorial Lecture on 11 October - here's the relevant bit in what he said (edited for space):
"The challenge for policymakers will ...
December 10th 2004
By: Luke
BT Group PLC said group finance director Ian Livingston has been appointed chief executive of BT Retail with effect from February 2005, replacing Pierre Danon.
Danon, who will be leaving in the new year, was understood to have fallen out with BT group chief executive Ben Verwaayen over whether the consumer-facing ...
December 10th 2004
By: Amit
The Competition Appeal Tribunal yesterday upheld a notification by legacy telecoms regulator Oftel which found that BT had misused customer-specific information to try and prevent customers from transferring to competing communications providers.
The ruling concerned BT�s �save activity� which is understood to have included BT�s marketing team calling customers who wished ...
