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Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, is consulting on access to premium content. This follows complaints from four operators about the operation of the UK pay-TV sector. The regulator proposes that Sky premium content should be made subject to a wholesale must-offer requirement and price control. Ofcom set out a set of criteria to assess the pay-TV sector; consumer choice, innovation and pricing. It defined premium content as that which is likely to be most effective in driving pay-TV subscriptions, through a significant appeal to a broad audience and limited free-to-air availability. Live...

In the United Kingdom, the film exhibition sector is, according to the recently released House of Lord’s Communications Committee’s “Report on The British Film and Television Industries”, dominated by a few large companies… In 2008, there were 3,610 screens (96 more than in 2007) in 726 cinemas in the UK. In 2008, 61 per cent of screens were controlled by three companies: Odeon, Cineworld and Vue. The two largest of these are owned by private equity firms, Terra Firma (Odeon) and the Blackstone Group (Cineworld). Exhibitor revenues, which are made up of box office receipts, concessions and advertising,...

The Office of Communications (Ofcom), which regulates most UK broadcasting, is required by the Communications Act 2003 to review public service broadcasting at least every five years. It has just published the second stage of its current review, based on detailed evidence from broadcasters and from stakeholders and the public. The review found that audiences value the BBC very highly, but do not favour it becoming the only provider of public service broadcasting. However, provision of such broadcasting by commercial broadcasters will not survive transition to an all-digital world (from 2012) without...

The UK Competition Commission found earlier this year that BSkyB’s 17.9% holding in ITV plc constituted a merger situation and had resulted in a substantial lessening of competition within the UK market for all television services, though it was not unlawful for reducing media plurality. As a result, the Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise ordered the shareholding to be reduced to a level below 7.5% (see IRIS 2008-3: 13). BSkyB appealed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, the UK competition court, which has now rejected its appeal, but upheld an appeal from a rival bidder on plurality...

The first co-ministerial decision on the digital switchover was published in the Greek Official Journal, on the basis of Article 14 of Law 3592/2007 (see IRIS 2007-8: 12) relating to the transition to digital terrestrial television. This decision fixes 1 November 2008 as the date for the voluntary commencement of transmission of DTT by the existing analogue stations. According to the text of the decision, this first stage of the DSO will involve seven multiplexes, each of them containing four television channels: three of the multiplexes will be allocated to the public broadcaster ERT, the Channel...