One of the things that keeps me awake at night my dreams is that Ofcom destroys our humble blog by simply creating a blog of its own — engaging with the public in a casual, Comment-Ain’t-Free style that’s not binding on anyone, but serves as a listening-talking-thinking forum for the regulator. Such a move [...]
Public Voice has petitioned the Prime Minister to ensure that spectrum freed for use following digital switchover is available for citizen and community uses, by rejecting the notion that all of it is sold off to the highest bidder.
The petition, online at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/CitizensSpectrum, is a response to the feeling among Public Voice coalition members, and [...]
In accordance with Section 44A of the Enterprise Act, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling, has today asked Ofcom to conduct an initial investigation into British Sky Broadcasting Group’s acquisition of a 17.9% stake in ITV plc.
This is the first time a special intervention notice has been issued by the DTI since [...]
As everyone by now has probably read, Ofcom last Thursday announced the details of its restrictions on certain television advertisements for foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS). I thought I would wait a few days and assemble some of the more notable or interesting reactions. Here are a few:
The Times (Feb [...]
The Ofcom Consumer Panel has just submitted its response to Ofcom’s Annual plan 2007/08. The full document is here. The Panel’s primary aim in this document is to highlight problematical areas of access and inclusion across the sector and issue a blunt challenge to Ofcom in the form of a question:
‘[W]hat work — other than [...]
Ofcom have posted some of the consultation responses it has received in the DDR. 23 are posted so far. Click here to view the responses.
(Annoyingly, Ofcom’s website stores these alphabetically and has no sort feature so it won’t enable a person to know which responses are ‘new’ the next time one checks the same web page).
I [...]
Ofcom yesterday released the full texts of FM radio licence award decisions covering Manchester (click here) and Herefordshire / Monmouthshire (click here).
The Manchester FM radio licence went to an affiliate of the Guardian Media Group and the Herfordshire/Monmouthshire radio licence went to an entity owned by Laser Broadcasting, which owns other stations in that area. [...]
The Guardian money section on Saturday says don’t buy new HD-ready televisions. (And a few weeks ago — I meant to blog it but forgot — the Sunday Times money section said don’t use Skype.). We’re told:
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“We’ve been warning members that they’re better off with their old-style CRT (cathode ray tube) TVs for [...]
Today’s MediaGuardian (Tara Conlan) takes aim at the BBC’s ‘carbon footprint’ and amount of waste. We’re told that the BBC’s ‘[c]arbon emissions went up to almost 0.25 tonnes per broadcast hour in 2005, compared with just over 0.15 tonnes the year before.’
Shouldn’t the BBC’s carbon emissions be measured in tonnes per viewer/listener? It’s [...]
OFCOM have announced they are going to investigate the proposed Sky DTT service with the following terms of reference:
Firstly, the impact on consumers of Sky’s proposal to use MPEG4 compression technology via new set-top boxes, in order to increase the amount of content which can be carried. Ofcom would need to assess:
The potential benefit of [...]
Many thanks to those of you who attended or spoke at our conference on February 5th on the Digital Dividend Consultation.
Our member group, the CMA, are very kindly hosting a brief summary of conference outcomes, together with a copy of the information for delegates and a selection of presentations. You can view these at the [...]
ZDNET are reporting that the OFCOM chairman, Lord Currie, made some shocking statements in a speech to a trade association of comms users in business, Communications Management Association.
“For customers who live too far from an exchange, technically this is a problem that could be solved by fibre. But the services are not yet defined, the [...]
In a statement released February 6th, Steve Jobs, chief of Apple, Inc., fired a shot across the bow of the “big four” record labels–Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. Jobs says that if he had his way Apple would sell music on the iTunes Music Store with no DRM. It’s a surprisingly firm statement, a [...]
I thought I would link to this funny piece by Martin Belam, which points out an important blind spot in recent research on the BBC’s new iPlayer. It’s nothing new, I suppose — almost two years ago we interviewed Roger Bennett of ELSPA who observed that U.K. policy-makers were ‘out of touch’ when it comes [...]
I’m basically a cheerleader for anything ‘great’ about media and communications. It’s why I love the sector so much. And nothing in the past 10 years has excited me as much as HDTV.
Freeview? Well, it’s okay… I’ve posted before on its limitations as a viewing platform, but at least it does one [...]
Luke and I have been evaluating Ofcom’s progress as it enters its fourth year of operations. There’s mostly good news to report: Apart from remit-related problems of the BBC and the internet — it’s fair to say that Ofcom deserve its reputation as a high-calibre, light-touch regulator. That’s not to say we don’t find the [...]
Ofcom announced yesterday the departure of competition partner Sean Williams, who heads to the Office of Fair Trading. Williams was once rumoured to be a candidate for the vacant CEO spot taken by Ed Richards. Williams, Carter, Meek, Foster… many of the original Ofcom senior team are now gone… we’ll see what effect [...]
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