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On 24 June 2010, the European Commission issued a set of reasoned opinions to 12 member states (Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, and Slovenia) requesting that they proceed with updating their national broadcasting legislation in order to bring it into compliance with the Audiovisual Media Service (AVMS) Directive. The Directive, which replaced the Television without Frontiers Directive of 1989 (as amended), was adopted in December 1997 with the intention of bringing the EU’s broadcasting rules up to speed with the digital age. The...

The Digital Economy Act received royal assent on 8 April 2010 and came into force (with the exception of certain sections which were granted immediate effect) on 8 June 2010. The Act is intended to regulate digital media and, to a large extent, implements the legislative proposals of last summer’s Digital Britain report (see IRIS 2009-8: 14/20). The Act includes provisions relating to the UK’s communications infrastructure, public service broadcasting, copyright licensing and online infringement of copyright, as well as security and safety online and in video games. Most of the provisions of the...

The Digital Economy Act 2010, Section 3, concerning ‘Online infringement of copyright’, has amended the Communications Act 2003, Section 124. The Explanatory Memorandum for Section 3 of the 2010 Act states that the Act imposes duties on Internet Service Providers to (a) “notify their subscribers if the internet protocol (“IP”) addresses associated with them are reported by copyright owners as being used to infringe copyright” and (b) “keep track of the number of reports about each subscriber and, on request by a copyright owner, compile on an anonymous basis a list of those subscribers who are...

The Office of Fair Trading, the general UK competition authority, has decided that Project Canvas, a proposed joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BT, Talk Talk and Arqiva, does not constitute a merger and so does not qualify for investigation by the competition authorities. Project Canvas (see IRIS 2010-2: 1/22) is a proposal to build an open Internet-connected television platform with common technical standards. An earlier project (‘Project Kangaroo’) was blocked as anti-competitive by the Competition Commission in 2009 (IRIS 2009-4: 12/16), as it would provide viewers with access...

The UK Competition Commission, the country’s main competition authority, has decided that the Contract Rights Renewal (CRR) undertakings required of ITV1, the largest commercial broadcaster, are to continue. The undertakings were imposed by the Competition Commission and the Secretary of State after the merger of Carlton and Granada in 2003 to create a single ITV plc. They reflected concerns about the effect of the enhanced market position of the new company on competition in the sale of television advertising airtime. The undertakings allow buyers of advertising airtime to roll forward their pre-merger...