Review of new research on Media effects
by Andrea Millwood Hargrave and Sonia Livingstone
Many thanks to Russ for bringing the publication of this media effects research book to my attention a few weeks back.
For those with an interest in media effects there is a lot to attract them to this review of the evidence of harm [...]
Ofcom today released this 117-page .pdf report (click here) covering the latest trends and figures in the communications market. I have not read the entire document yet, but found myself immediately turning to the discussion of the UK cable industry, starting on page 111.
Update: It’s really interesting to read a report like this. [...]
[post from yesterday]
I believe it was the great Sammy Davis, Jr., who once said, “Ouch, babe, I really mean it.”
Today the FTSE100 closed near a five-year high, and our beloved Pan-European telecom sector fell off a cliff – down 1.34%. That’s something like EUR7bn in capitalization sucked down the crapper of history. The chief culprit, [...]
UK RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR INPUT ON THE FORTHCOMING REVIEW OF THE EU REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS AND SERVICES
Executive Summary
The UK considers the EU Regulatory Framework has been a considerable success in encouraging competition, investment and choice in EU markets. However, that fact that the Framework has not been implemented thoroughly and consistently [...]
Reports indicate that the Australian government will this week outline changes to the media ownership rules down under. Currently, media companies can only control either a newspaper, television or radio station in any market.
Under the new plans the government is expected to propose companies would be free to operate in any medium as long [...]
Today’s issue of The Lawyer has an interesting interview with Polly Weitzman, head of Ofcom’s legal team, in which she predicts more battles between Ofcom and the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) as companies and lawyers test the limits of the new laws. So far the CAT has remitted aspects of Ofcom’s decisions back to [...]
Kingston Communications have decided to close down KIT IPTV. Apparently the last day of operation is April 3rd and Sky are in talks to pick up the customers.
KIT is Kingston Communications’ Broadband Interactive TV Service delivering IPTV to around 6,000 households in Hull and East Yorkshire.
The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property today issued a call for evidence as part of its commitment to consult widely.
The call for evidence consists of a letter from Andrew Gowers, with an accompanying paper that provides details of the scope of the Review and sets out a number of general and specific issues on [...]
Luke and I met with Emma Gilthorpe of Openreach yesterday in London. Sitting on top of a BT exchange, Openreach’s new HQ is squeezed between a church and a pub in the heart of Mayfair. So, after a challenging day, the employees can pick their solace. Actually, that would have been a [...]
Ofcom, is consulting on its approach to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. The consultation aims to update interim guidance issued by Ofcom on 6 September 2004. The key proposals are: (i) to discontinue Ofcom�s interim forbearance policy for VoIP services (as introduced in the 2004 consultation) to ensure compliance with Community obligations under the [...]
The figures on Internet connectivity issued today by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) provide good news and bad news.
The good news is that broadband take-up is storming ahead and now accounts for almost two-thirds of all Net users in the UK (the actual figure is 64.2%). The bad news is that, while narrowband [...]
As everyone probably knows, Ofcom was created in 2002-2003 through the merger of five existing regulators in the media and communications sector. While this is not terribly unique in the overall scheme of things, public sector mergers will increase in the future as the UK comes to grips with how it manages public regulatory [...]
In response to Roger Darlington’s excellent post on Ofcom’s consultation process, we received the following comment:
Given the complexity of most Ofcom consultations, in so many different ways, would Ofcom really take consultations from random members of the public all that seriously? Or indeed should it?
Specifical factual comments are of course always admissible, regardless of source. [...]
In an exclusive Ofcomwatch interview, John Whittingdale, MP has revealed that the Culture, Media and Sport Committee (of which he is Chairman) and the Trade and Industry Select Committee have agreed to hold a joint session to scrutinise Ofcom’s work, finances, and plans for the future.
The first joint session is likely to be in June, [...]
Ofcom Press Release follows –
Ofcom today set in train its first spectrum auction, announcing Tuesday 21 March 2006 as the provisional date for applications. It has now made the four statutory instruments relevant to this award ahead of an auction which will take place during March and April.
The auction will comprise a single round [...]
In a move that is unlikely to keep costs down – The Lawyer reports –
“…Ofcom has embarked on an aggressive recruitment drive to boost its in-house legal capacity to deal with policy issues. In particular, the regulator is facing a rising number of decisions which are appealed to the Competition Appeals Tribunal.
The increasing workload [...]
Since Luke and Russ are probably too shy to bring it to your attention, let me point out that today they have a letter in the Media section of the “Guardian”:
The power of Google
John Halton (Whose words are they anyway?, February 6) adopts an overly legalistic perspective in his analysis of Google’s reprinting of news [...]
The Independent reports,
“Google has hired a “big gun” to help it spin away from a tight spot: New Labour’s arch PR fixer, Tim Allan…His firm, Portland PR, has been engaged to lobby both the British government and the national media, following Google’s decision to allow the Chinese government to censor the content of its site.”
Portland [...]
In a speech made to the European Regulators Group (ERG) in Paris on 8 Feb 2006, the EC Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, announced that she had ‘asked the European Commission services’…
‘to start working on an EU regulation on international roaming charges � an EU Regulation that the European Commission could propose [...]
Today Ofcom has published its long-awaited consultation document on consumer policy. The 98-page document (two research annexes are in a separate 73 page document) poses 16 questions and invites submissions by 19 April 2006. Throughout the thoughful and well-evidenced document, there are a number of references to the work of the Ofcom Consumer Panel and [...]
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