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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...

As a consequence of the AVMS Directive, Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, opened a review in March 2008 of its Rules on the Amount and Distribution of Advertising (RADA). The aim was that the Rules be (a) shorter and (b) simpler. The proposals, which are reflected in the revised Code, included: (i) lifting the “20 minute” rule (currently, there must be not less than twenty minutes between advertising breaks within programmes) and (ii) lifting or liberalising the rules regarding advertising during specific programme genres (documentaries, current affairs, religious programmes) and during films...

In the UK there have been a number of serious recent scandals involving the conduct of competitions, especially those using premium rate telephone lines for participants (see IRIS 2007-8: 11, IRIS 2007-10: 15, IRIS 2008-2: 13 and IRIS 2008-7: 13). The latest example involved the BBC, rather than a commercial broadcaster. The public broadcaster was fined a total of GBP 400,000 by Ofcom, the communications regulator, for misconduct of competitions in eight television and radio programmes. The competitions had all breached Rule 2.11 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, which requires competitions to be...

In the UK regulation of content of broadcast advertising is delegated by the regulator, Ofcom, to the Advertising Standards Authority set up by the industry itself. The Authority received complaints from two viewers that a television advertisement by Apple for the iPhone was misleading and in breach of three provisions of the Advertising Standards Code requiring that advertisements should not mislead, should not make claims without objective evidence on which to base them and that there should be no implications of capabilities of products beyond those that can be achieved in normal use. The advertisement...

Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, has considered a large number of complaints about lack of factual accuracy and lack of impartiality in relation to “The Great Global Warming Swindle”, a programme broadcast by Channel 4 which sought to challenge the theory that human activity is the major cause of climate change and global warming. In a separate investigation, it considered complaints of unfairness by scientists referred to or contributing to the programme and by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In the first case, the allegation was that the programme presented facts in a misleading...