June 9th 2005
By: Camilla
Fun Radio are one of 19 bidders for a Manchester FM licence to be awarded by Ofcom today. Fun Radio, backed by children�s entertainers HIT Entertainment and GCap Media claim the station will not merely be a commercial station. Instead, the station will be crucial to the development of radio, ...
June 9th 2005
By: Russ
Robert Shrimsley in today's FT:
Ofcom argues that competition in public service broadcasting is necessary to keep the BBC's standards high. But if there really is a fear about the BBC's monopoly position then Ofcom should recommend not raising the licence fee but giving other channels some of the BBC's ...
June 8th 2005
By: Luke
Google has become the world's most highly valued media company, valued at more than $80 billion, surpassing Time Warner after just ten months of trading as a public company.
June 8th 2005
By: Nicholas Francis
As noted earlier today, Ofcom has released its response to the Green Paper on the review of the BBC�s Royal Charter. Ofcom makes several points about competition matters. A key proposal in the Green Paper was that the BBC Trust would undertake a public value test in ...
June 8th 2005
By: Russ
Just announced... the document is here. I haven't read it yet, but the accompanying press release indicates Ofcom are sticking to:
* An institutional model of PSB (BBC fully-funded, cornerstone of PSB, key role in digital switchover, all things to all people, etc.);
* The much-derided PSP concept; and
* 'The BBC is ...
June 8th 2005
By: Russ
Humourous article from Forbes on how state and local taxes on wireless services interplay with federal number portability and mobility issues.
Addressing technologies (such as telephone numbers), in the modern world, are becoming decoupled from geography. This makes administration of a host of state-initiated schemes (eg, reporting, subsidy, taxation, etc.) ...
June 8th 2005
By: Russ
Yesterday, the EC DG Competition released a 'state aid action plan', available here.
Responses to this consultation are due no later than September 15, 2005.
Basically, this looks like a clampdown on state aid in light of the recent attempts to reinvigorate the Lisbon agenda. Or is it? The ...
June 8th 2005
By: Peter
Ofcom has decided not to demand a reduction in the cost of termination charges - the amount mobile companies charge for handling calls from other mobiles and landlines. Instead they propose to extend their charge controls on 2G mobile voice call for 12 months to 31 March 2007.
First a history ...
June 7th 2005
By: Luke
Ofcom today announced the appointment of Peter Davies as its new Director of Radio and Multimedia. He will be responsible for developing Ofcoms strategy, co-ordinating policies and activities relating to radio and multimedia content across the organisation, as well as leading the radio, multimedia, and media literacy teams in Content ...
June 7th 2005
By: Russ
From today's FT:
'Ofcom, the media and communications regulator, is facing potential legal action from a niche TV channel for allegedly failing to protect its brand-name or intellectual property rights.
The Baby Channel, broadcast on cable networks, is seeking a judicial review of Ofcom's decision to grant a licence to Baby TV, ...
