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The Broadcasting Standards Council, the body established under the 1990 Broadcasting Act to monitor the portrayal of violence, sex and matters related to taste and decency in television, cable, radio and satellite services, has just published its fourth annual monitoring survey. The findings relate to three areas: violence, sexual activity and 'bad language'. The key issue of audience concern remains the depiction of violence. However, the first significant change in the proportion of those registering a concern about this issue is recorded in this annual report (for 1995) - 57% saying that there...

Essential reforms to meet the communications needs of the UK into the next century and improve the management of the radio spectrum are being published as a White Paper by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). It announces the Government's intention to bring forward legislation to permit the use of pricing as an aid to effective spectrum management in a context of (potential) spectrum congestion. According to the Radiocommunications Agency (RA), which is responsible for the management of most non-military spectrum in the UK, the current radio licence fees do not reflect the real value of...

In 1989 the Privy Council denied copyright protection for the format (plan or scheme on which a television series is based) of the television gameshow 'Opportunity Knocks' ([1989] 2 All ER 1056). Although the decision of the Privy Council had highly persuasive authority, the issue remained controversial. In 1994 a draft private Member's Bill proposed to extend literary works to formats. Subsequently, the Patent Office issued a Consultative Document on the protection of formats. As a result the Patent Office has continued working on possible legislative approaches to the protection of formats. This...

In IRIS 1996-5: 7-10 we published an overview of the state of Signatures and Ratifications of European Conventions and other international treaties that are relevant to the audiovisual sector. We indicated that IRIS would keep you informed on a monthly basis of new signatures and ratification of relevant European Conventions. Therefore, we can now report that the: European Convention on Transfrontier Television was signed by Ukraine on 14 June 1996; and that the European Convention relating to questions on copyright law and neighbouring rights in the framework of transfrontier broadcasting by satellite,...

During the passage of the UK Broadcasting Bill, an attempt was made to change the provisions in the Bill prohibiting ownership of more than 20% of a Channel 3 licence holder by newspaper groups with more than 20% of national newspaper circulation. The effect of the provisions is to exclude Rupert Murdoch's News International, and the Mirror Groups from extending their participation in Channel 3. Proposals to lift the restriction were supported by two junior ministers and by the Labour opposition (which has traditionally been supported by the Mirror Group). The Government however decided to resist...