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The European Commission has issued a decision that makes commitments from the UK Football Association Premier League concerning media rights legally binding. The commitments will remain in force until 30 June 2013, covering the next two rounds of bidding. The Commission had raised concerns about the joint selling of rights by the Premier League, which might deprive media operators and British football fans of choice, and lead to higher prices and reduced innovation. However, the Commission also recognised that there are benefits to joint selling for football fans and media operators as well as...

A unit to combat film piracy has just been established as a joint venture between the Metropolitan Police and the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT). The Film Piracy Unit has been established within the Police's Economic and Specialist Crime Command and “will investigate those individuals and organizations involved in the illegal activity in the area of film piracy” e.g., the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit film products. Where such individuals or organizations have profited from such activity, the confiscation powers in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 may be brought into play....

According to Section 11 of the Communications Act 2003, “It shall be the duty of OFCOM to take such steps, and to enter into such arrangements, as appear to them calculated (a) to bring about, or to encourage others to bring about, a better public understanding of the nature and characteristics of material published by means of the electronic media; (b) to bring about, or to encourage others to bring about, a better public awareness and understanding of the processes by which such material is selected, or made available, for publication by such means;…” To that end, the Media Literacy Unit published...

The European Commission has approved, under the state aid rules, the “FibreSpeedWales” project. This project, funded by the Welsh Development Agency, aims to contribute to reducing the relatively slow development of broadband in Wales. This slow-paced development is due to the nation's geographical isolation, its mountainous terrain and its low population density; as a result, broadband prices for businesses can be several times higher than in other areas of the UK. The project targets business parks for which affordable broadband services are not available as they are located in remote areas and...

Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, reviewed the independent production sector in 2002 and, as a result, new Codes of Practice were issued setting out the principles by which the public service broadcasters commission programmes from independent producers (see IRIS 2004-2: 13). It has now undertaken a further review and has recommended changes to the codes. The review found that with more than 27,000 hours of programmes made by UK producers in 2004, UK viewers enjoy one of the highest levels of domestically-originated content in the world. 56% of output was produced in house by the broadcasters,...