December 30th 2005
By: Luke
Press Release
The OFT today announced the clearance of the proposed acquisition by BSkyB Broadband Services Limited (Sky) of Easynet Group Plc (Easynet) and the merger of NTL Incorporated (ntl) and Telewest Global, Inc (Telewest). The OFT has decided that the test for merger reference to the Competition Commission is ...
December 24th 2005
By: Peter
Ever wondered what would happen if you woke up one morning to find that Ofcom and all telecoms regulation had disappeared overnight? Perhaps you were recently whisked away by the ghost of Christmas future only to find a land where mobile operators ran shoddy, inefficient monopolies, markets were stagnant and ...
December 23rd 2005
By: Russ
Ofcom recently stood up against Digital One over the issue of Ofcom issuing a second national DAB multiplex license. Digital One, which is majority owned by GCap, holds the only current national DAB license. Predictably, GCap opposes Ofcom's intention to issue a new multiplex. It's hard for ...
December 22nd 2005
By: Russ
Folks, the FAPL research was released by the European Commission.
Click here for the document (140-page .pdf file).
December 22nd 2005
By: Roger Darlington
Most people think of the Internet as embracing cutting-edge technology, but the reality is that at the core of the network is an old and inefficient protocol that has not been up-graded much sooner because of the dispersed nature of the ownership of the Net. As I wrote in ...
December 21st 2005
By: monica
France was until now the only European country which still maintained a model of two competing satellite pay-TV platforms. This will probably change as Canal Satellite (jointly owned by Vivendi Universal and Lagardere) and TPS (owned by the commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6) join forces to create a single platform. ...
December 21st 2005
By: Russ
Ofcom's research goes to the heart of a big part of the television market in the U.K. - under what terms and conditions can the FA Premier League (FAPL) sell its television rights? In the past, Sky has been the sole buyer of this programming, helping the satellite provider ...
December 21st 2005
By: Russ
Ofcom yesterday announced a consultation on product placement. The consultation document is here. This particular consultation permits respondents to submit their views via this online response form. I've been traveling lately, so a little out of touch -- is this the first time Ofcom have tried this? ...
December 20th 2005
By: Roger Darlington
At the December 2003 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, governments adopted a Plan of Action that called on the Secretary-General of the United Nations to set up a Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). After seven months of work, the WGIG�s Report and a longer Background ...
December 15th 2005
By: Russ
I agree with Monica's post (below) concerning the proposed TV Without Frontiers revision, particularly her concerns with respect to the jurisdiction question. Really, the EC's proposals are over-regulatory and short-sighted in nearly every respect. I was tempted to do a very long post on this issue, but decided ...
