Archive for May, 2008

Nick Reynolds was right about the licence fee…

I just heard last night that Poland’s Civic Platform led government failed in its attempt to eliminate the Polish television licence fee. It has been eliminated for the poor and elderly but everyone else must ‘pay up sucka’.
It seems that Poland’s cultural elite came out strongly in favour of retaining the fee and that [...]

Ofcom disrespect the Peckham Boys. Holla back…

Ofcom released its 110th Broadcast Bulletin today. Woohoo!
One very important issue resolved by Ofcom dealt with whether it was fair or not for ITV to misidentify someone’s gang affiliation:

Reminds me of the Van Buren Boys:

OW Friday Film Festival: another BT Home Hub goes up in flames

Someone should do a PhD thesis on the social-psychology underlying these videos…

Competition Appeal Tribunal slams Ofcom over mobile termination rates…

The CAT’s decision is here.
I have not followed this case closely. Well, I have not followed it at all, other than to maintain my firm conviction that mobile termination rates are like hospital super-bugs — they are nasty, bad for us and seemingly immune from eradication by the powers that be.
My uninformed reading of [...]

Guardian: Gordon Brown should act on telecommunications / broadband…

From today’s Guardian leader:
‘The government would like broadband to be delivered by the private sector. There is, however, a troubling gap between a national vision of high-speed broadband to the home (as happens in South Korea, which has a government-backed industrial policy) and the perceptions of most big companies, like BT, that the market does [...]

Withering Sky response to Ofcom Pay TV market investigation…

From Sky’s recent response to Ofcom’s Pay TV market investigation:
‘However, despite the evidence in its own Consultation Document, Ofcom has set out – and then expressly sought evidence to bolster – a series of hypothetical concerns. This approach is inconsistent with both Ofcom’s regulatory principles and its statement in the Consultation Document that it [...]

The GMTV phone-in scandal: Was Ofcom too soft?

I SHOULD ADD:
I’ve written before how failed or inadequate regulatory remedies for consumers in the UK are opening the door to a relatively new type of remedy: the class action lawsuit.
Well, it turns out the case of the GMTV wrongdoing that at least one large law firm may be interested in taking the matter [...]

UK no. 1 in broadband international league table…

According to the OECD’s most recent statistics, the UK is number 1 in the international league table of people videoing their destruction of ADSL wireless routers:
What is it about BT Home Hubs that drive people to violence?

Rapture responds to OW post about Ofcom appeal…

This is Rapture thing is getting a bit tired. Isn’t the fundamental problem here that satellite television carriage is just really expensive and under-capitalised firms who want to reach the public are better off just maintaining a web presence? I had the unfortunate task in my earlier job as in-house counsel to a [...]