March 28th 2005
By: Russ
I thought it might be a good idea to revisit the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) during the holiday weekend. When we previously checked-in on the ASA, the new advertising regulator was just getting geared-up for its expanded remit.
So, what's the ASA been up to? We would like your views (blog@ofcomwatch.co.uk). ...
March 24th 2005
By: monica
Yesterday Ofcom published a report covering its work in competition and economic regulation in the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors between July and December 2004. The report notes the increasing convergence across Ofcom policy groups (the clearest example is the competition in broadcasting markets programme). It also highlights the number of ...
March 24th 2005
By: EuroTelcoBlog
Interesting paper here in response to OFCOM's spectrum consultation in the UK, by Open Spectrum. I like the emphasis on encouraging OFCOM to regard license-exempt uses as normal rather than exceptional, and also the gentle chiding of OFCOM for ghetto-izing cognitive and software-defined radio as "threats."
~ James Enck
March 23rd 2005
By: Russ
We just received the full-text of Lord Puttnam's recent keynote speech at the Ofcom / IPPR Media Literacy Seminar (email us at blog@ofcomwatch.co.uk if you want a copy - it does not appear on the Ofcom website). Here are some nuggets:
[M]edia literacy is about creating something positive - it ...
March 23rd 2005
By: ChrisMarsden
OfCom just released its new bulletin - no new Director of Investigations yet, which is a real worry as this is Oftel's bread-and-butter, not the big strategic reviews. Remember Oftel's drift over 2001-2 with no-one in situ...
However, despite the long tail of investigations which are ongoing (unlucky 13), there is ...
March 23rd 2005
By: ChrisMarsden
Serious work done by Analysys indicates the medium-term assumption that a copper loop will need to support 8Mb/s - both they and OfCom should be congratulated for a really substantial piece of work. However, Dave Burstein's DSLPrime newsletter suggests ADSL2 could work up to 50-100Mb/s. Either way, it's video ...
March 22nd 2005
By: Russ
OfcomWatch friend, David Brunnen of groupe intellex, alerted us to his recent article entitled 'Is Ofcom on the right wavelength?' It's a useful assessment, from a strategic perspective, of where Ofcom stands with respect to its plans for the U.K.'s usage of the radio spectrum resource.
Some nuggets:
For many ...
March 21st 2005
By: Paul
The new Broadcasting code appears to be proving problematic for Ofcom. By the time the consultation over the code had drawn to a close in October last year more than 900 responses had been received. Although a large number of these responses were duplicates recieved from media pressure groups, a ...
March 21st 2005
By: Russ
Sony beat Ofcom to the punch ... by a considerable distance.
The Sony PSP is being launched on Thursday in the USA (Japan was in December, Europe to follow). It features:
* Portable gaming, of course.
* A new 'UMD disk' to play movies, show photos, play music
* Wi-Fi, ...
March 21st 2005
By: Russ
Anna Wagstaff of the Oxford NUJ alerted us to an event that was held last Saturday here in Oxford (details here) to promote more robust local news coverage.
Anna wrote to us: "Our longer-term aim is to involve the public in the debates that are taking place over the future ...
