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The UK communications regulator Ofcom has opened a consultation on proposals concerning licensing the right to use mobile telephones on commercial aircraft. The consultation opened on 18 October 2007 and it closes on 30 November 2007. The consultation follows a discussion document published in 2006. Ofcom’s responsibility is limited to spectrum regulation and the problem of potential intereference with terrestrial networks. Accordingly, the use of such equipment would be licensed only above 3000 metres. Such onboard networks should not be, in Ofcom’s opinion, “licence-exempt” because of the “…uncertainty...

The Office of Communications (Ofcom), the British communications regulator, has imposed a fine of GBP 2 million (approx. EUR 3 million) on GMTV, the commercial public service breakfast-time broadcaster. The fine is for its serious failure to ensure compliance with Ofcom’s codes on premium-rate phone competitions between 2003 and 2007. From 2003 GMTV employed the telecommunications operator, Opera, to manage the competition entry systems and to provide telecommunications services. After complaints and an investigation carried out in a programme by the BBC, Ofcom found that there had been four types...

The British Competition Commission has issued a provisional finding that the pay-TV operator BSkyB’s acquisition of a 17.9% share in the largest commercial free-to-air broadcaster, ITV, would be likely to lead to a significant lessening of competition by giving it the opportunity to influence ITV’s strategy. A final report is expected in December, and the minister will then decide what action to take (which could include requiring divestment of the stake or restrictions on behaviour, such as on the exercising of voting rights). The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry referred two questions...

In 1997 the Television without Frontiers Directive, originally drafted in 1989, was amended to include a major innovation in the form of a new article 3a which has had a significant impact on the viewing of major events (and especially sports events) within the European Union. The underlying idea was to prevent such events as the recent England v. South Africa Rugby World Cup Final or the 2002 wedding of the Dutch crown prince from being monopolised by the holders of the exclusive rights to such events and withheld from the general public by way of encrypted transmission. Article 3a states: “each...

The UK communications regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) has fined the Islam Channel GBP 30,000 for a number of breaches of its Broadcasting Code. The Code prohibits candidates in UK elections from acting as news presenters, interviewers, or presenters of any type of programme during the election period. It also requires that due impartiality be observed and that a range of significant views be included in programmes relating to matters of major political controversy. The Islam Channel is a specialist religious channel broadcasting on the Sky platform and it is directed at a largely...