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Preparing the launch of digital TV services in the United Kingdom, the Office of Telecommunications (OFTEL) has set out its proposed approach to the pricing issues of conditional access services for digital television. Conditional access systems are used by broadcasters of pay-TV service to ensure that only authorised viewers either those who have paid to receive the service or those for whom the broadcaster has purchased rights are able to receive services. It is clear that conditional access services are crucial to the development of pay-TV. OFTEL's responsibilities in relation to the pricing...

The United Kingdom has made regulations restricting the use of videosenders for the purposes of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1967, s. 7. The regulations restrict the importation, manufacture, sale, hire offer and advertisement of videosenders and also prohibit having such a sender in one's custody or control. However, the restriction on imports does not apply to imports from within the European Union or the European Economic Area. The purpose is to prevent interference from videosenders which might affect other services or equipment.

The principle that the media should be able to protect the anonymity of its sources of information is accepted as an important principle in the English courts justified by the test of public interest. However, although great weight is given to European Court of Human Rights cases with facts similar to the facts before the domestic court, a "relevant but not conclusive factor" which might outweigh the general principle is the "wish of a betrayed employer to identify the disloyal employee so as to exclude him from future employment."

The Independent Television Commission has extended its review of the practice of bundling pay-TV channels by publishing a new consultation document. Its initial consultation paper "Competition Investigation into Premium Channel Bundling in the Pay-TV Market" was issued in November 1996. At the request of the European Commission the ITC will now also be investigating whether the wholesale price discount structure for BSkyB's premium channels could prevent the entry of other providers into the market. The ITC will also examine the issues of carriage guarantees, basic channel bundling and digital...

The BBC has just published its quarterly Complaints Unit Bulletin for the period from 1 April to 30 June 1997. During this period, the Unit dealt with 346 complaints in two main categories: matters of fairness and accuracy and matters of taste and standards. The former deals with topics such as unfair treatment of the complainant; bias; intrusiveness and factual inaccuracy. The latter's topics comprise poor taste; bad language; sexual conduct; violence; racism; sexism; and offence to the religious feeling. News and current affairs programmes produced the most complaints (43%) followed by enterntainment...