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On 19 June 2014, Ofcom proposed new measures in order to ensure that the major UK telephone and broadband provider, BT, takes steps to promote competition in the increasing market for superfast broadband amongst retail customers. BT controls and maintains a significant part of the broadband infrastructure or network within the United Kingdom, and as such effectively influences the prices it charges to third party rivals, such as Virgin, to use its infrastructure- this use of BT’s network by other providers is known as ‘virtual unbundled local access’ (VULA). BT can offer very competitive pricing...

Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, has issued new guidance on commercial references and programming on 2 June 2014. This supplements existing provisions in the Ofcom Broadcasting Code (section 9) which aim to secure editorial independence in programming, to ensure that there is a distinction between editorial content and advertising, to prevent surreptitious advertising, to protect consumers and to prevent unsuitable sponsorship. The new guidance advises that a programme about a product or service, such as a holiday destination or a high-street retailer, is likely to test the distinction between...

The broadcasting regulator Ofcom imposed a GBP 120,000 fine on ESPN on 2 June 2014, after the sports TV channel failed to meet its targets for providing audio description on its programmes. The channel was meant to provide the service for visually impaired viewers. It includes describing such things as body language, expressions and movements. However, in 2012 it only managed to provide this on 2.3% of programmes instead of the 5% it had agreed to under Condition 9(1) of its licence. It had also missed the target in 2011, as reported in Ofcom’s Broadcast Bulletin of 5 August 2013, leading the regulator...

In a defamation action in the Queen’s Bench Division of the English High Court presided over by Mr Justice Dingemans, it was determined in a judgment given on 9 April 2014 that the broadcaster, Channel 5, and the production company, Endemol UK Limited, were not liable for vile and abusive words used by one contestant against another in the reality television show Big Brother. Although the words were vile and abusive, they were not deemed to be defamatory of the recipient of the verbal attack. During the broadcast on the 25th June 2012, one contestant, Mr McIntyre, was abusive towards another contestant,...

In a decision published on 3 March 2014, Ofcom found that public sector broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), had breached the Ofcom Rules 1.3 and 2.3; namely inappropriate scheduling and a risk of being seen by children, and containing potentially offensive material, by broadcasting a current affairs programme depicting graphic scenes of physical and sexual violence arising during the Sri Lankan Civil War. Under the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.: Rule 1.3 states: “Children must be protected by appropriate scheduling from material that is unsuitable for them”; Rule 2.3 states; “In...