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Archive for May, 2005

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Super-size her

Perhaps the most frequent questions OfcomWatch receives about IPTV are:
Will the new converged world of IPTV ever manage to combine: (i) Paris Hilton; (ii) fast-food; and (iii) a Bentley desperately in need of a wash? And, if so, what are the important policy implications?
Folks, just click here.
Yes, it’s the infamous Hardee’s (that’s ‘Carl’s Jr.’ in [...]

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bbcgovernors.co.uk

Here it is – the all new BBC Governors website. Launched today – part of the initiative to get us a little closer to those handing out �2.8 billion of our money.
Got a view? Tell the world – blog@ofcomwatch.co.uk

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BBC Response to DCMS Green Paper released…

It’s here. Luke Gibbs is at the Westminster Media Forum event this morning, so hopefully we’ll get some first-hand perspective from him.

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The OfcomWatch Interview Series: Philip Rutnam

Folks, be sure to check out our interviews page for the latest OfcomWatch interview.
This time OfcomWatch sat down with Ofcom�s Philip Rutnam and discussed Ofcom�s radio spectrum regulation (UWB, FM-SRD, 2500-2690 MHz, AIP) and certain consultation issues.

Comments / suggestions to: blog@ofcomwatch.co.uk

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Ofcom Consumer Panel Report on Consumer / SME Knowledge and Experience in the Communications Market

Okay, I realise I�m quickly becoming the OfcomWatch resident-crank when it comes to market and consumer research pieces produced by Ofcom and the Ofcom Consumer Panel, but someone needs to complain about all this learning, right?
And, I�m a little untimely. The Consumer Panel�s report, Consumers and the communications market: where we are now, [...]

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Silent Calls – MKD Holdings and others

*** Submission from David Hickson to OfcomWatch ***
There are some points to pick up from Amit’s posting on 9 May.
This is with reference to the Notification against MKD Holdings (Kitchens Direct) and the accompanying Explanatory Notes published on 3 May. (I love what appears to be a spelling mistake in the file name!)
Ofcom is [...]

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VLV Public Seminar on the BBC and ITV… (in Oxford)

Folks – another event for the evening of May 26th…
Voice of the Listener & Viewer present a free public seminar:
What Future for the BBC and ITV?
Thurs May 26 2005
Green College Lecture Theatre, Woodstock Road, Oxford
5:45 pm – 7:30 pm
Speakers include: (i) David Levy, BBC (ii) Peter Montieth, Ofcom (iii) Stewart Purvis, Univ. of Oxford [...]

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James Purnell

Today’s Media Guardian features a profile of new Minister for the Creative Industries James Purnell. Purnell names switch-over to digital one of his key challenges in the coming years. He also acknowledges EC State Aid rules as a key factor influencing government’s leeway for rolling out digital television – something Ofcomwatch already pointed out in [...]

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Open Spectrum and Cybersalon host wireless debate – Science Museum – May 26th

Want to get an insight in what’s happening with the regulaltion of the radio spectrum? Well…
Open Spectrum UK and Cybersalon are hosting a unique debate next week on the future of wireless communications and the strategic prospects for utilising the radio spectrum. The event is being held at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre in London [...]

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Who’s the new digit in town? It’s 3 – no not that one…

Is 3 the magic number? It will be in some areas around London soon…
Ofcom today began a public information campaign to raise awareness of London (020) 3 numbers.
Ofcom announced (020) 3 as an additional number range for London in July 2004 to meet the capital’s growing needs for new telephone numbers.
Comment: Will 3 have special [...]

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EU Commission vetoes German telecoms regulator�s decision to refrain from regulation of wholesale call termination charges on fixed networks

The EU Commission recently announced that it has vetoed a decision by RegTP, the German telecoms regulator, not to impose ex-ante regulation on call termination charges set by network operators other than the German telecoms incumbent Deutsche Telekom.
When a customer of operator X calls a customer of operator Y, the call is terminated on operator [...]

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Ofcom plan to update 3G termination rate regulation

And as 3 get ready for their Competition Appeals Tribunal next week…Ofcom yesterday proposed an update to its regulation of mobile termination rates – a move that would have implications for operators using 3G technology.
Over the past two years, Ofcom has forced mobile network operators to reduce charges related to calls connected to second-generation networks [...]

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3 get set for Competition Appeals Tribunal over Ofcom’s SMP ruling

Daily Telegraph reports –
3 will go to a hearing of the Competition Appeals Tribunal next Monday to argue that Ofcom was wrong to suggest it has “significant market power”.
The company is worried Ofcom’s ruling, made last summer, could see the regulator force it to cut wholesale rates to the levels imposed on its larger [...]

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C4 posts �46 million profit

Deficit? Not at the moment – Channel 4 has posted a �46 million profit.

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“New TV” Battles: Cambridge 1 – Oxford 1

Some days ago we posted about how Cambridge is hosting Microsoft�s ethnographic new media study, covering twelve households. Well, Oxford (can�t be less, eh?) has gone for mobile TV.
Starting next September O2 and NTL broadcast will carry out a six month trial to monitor the activities of 350 O2 customers. People will receive on their [...]

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Kentucky Fried Nonsense

Out of the many millions of television viewers just over one thousand chose to complain about the recent series of KFC adverts that showed people talking with their mouths full. Some parents were concerned that the advert encouraged bad manners.
Having been pre-vetted by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre the ad is now being checked out [...]

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Do you want to watch?

Back in February I published an excruciatingly long note on BSkyB and the changes occurring within broadcasting which should make investors wary. One of the risk factors I cited was that sports and content rights holders would increasingly choose a more direct route to the end consumer, as has been the case with Major [...]

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Ahoy there! Pirate radio makes a comeback

Pirate radio makes a come back this weekend as Radio London is revived, a whopping 38 years after being closed down when broadcasting regulations were tightened in the late 1960s.
Ray Anderson who is behind the comeback states �I have been very disillusioned with the Radio Authority and now Ofcom. They don’t allow competition in to [...]

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Appointment: EPRA president

Joan Botella, member of the Catalan Audiovisual Council (the only independent audiovisual regulatory authority currently in Spain) was elected president of the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities (EPRA) last Friday. The EPRA webpage is still not updated but you can find Mr. Botella�s bio here.
EPRA is a forum for informal discussion and exchange of [...]

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Should Ofcom stop the Beeb’s subliminal downgrading of Scotland?

Will the new ‘harm and offence’ standard contained in Ofcom’s delayed broadcasting code cover the BBC’s new weather maps, which–according to one observer–unfairly shrink/portray Scotland?
You don’t need a weather-man to know which way the wind blows…