The trialogue between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Member States on the revision of the Audio-Visual Media Services (AVMS) Directive is currently in progress, after several years of work by all parties to update the text of the Directive. This update is timely, given the profound and rapid changes in how TV and other video content is … Continue Reading
Category Archives: Broadcasting
DSM Watch: EU Commission proposes expanded audiovisual regulation
On 25th of May the European Commission published the draft for the amended Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS Directive), which regulates broadcasting and on-demand audiovisual media services in Europe. The Commission’s draft extends the scope of audiovisual regulation to cover new online services.
Regulation of internet video channels
Currently the AVMS Directive only covers content that is comparable “… Continue Reading
Hong Kong’s first antitrust judgment since the new competition regime’s entry into force
On 29 January 2016, Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance quashed a 2013 decision (“Decision”) by the Communications Authority (“CA”) – upheld by the Chief Executive In Council (“CEIC”) – against Television Broadcasters (“TVB”), primarily on the grounds that the CA and CEIC are inherently political entities lacking objective impartiality as decision makers due to their concurrent policy, advisory and … Continue Reading
DSM Watch: Commission publishes geo-blocking issues paper
The European Commission’s newly published geo-blocking issues paper concludes that geo-blocking practices are widespread across sales of both consumer goods and digital content.
The Commission has reconfirmed its intention to look carefully at such practices under the EU competition rules particularly where underpinned by agreements. This suggests a range of distribution and licensing arrangements are likely to be subject to … Continue Reading
French Court: Important ruling on ‘must carry’ override issue in real-time streaming case
Leaving in place the lower court’s €1million damages award, the Paris Court of Appeals recently held that the live streaming website “PlayTV” infringed both the broadcaster’s “neighboring rights” in the broadcast, and the copyright in the underlying programs. This part of the decision is not a surprise. It confirms that picking up broadcast signals, and making the programs available via … Continue Reading
CJEU Debates Limits on TV Advertising in Europe
In its decision in Sanoma Media v Viestintävirasto the Court of Justice of the European Union signals a technical but potentially significant clarification in the application of the Audio Visual Media Services (AVMS) Directive.
This may trigger some national regulators to re-examine their approach and some broadcasters may, in turn, face pressure to adjust the amount of advertising content … Continue Reading
TMT Deal Trends in Mexico
As in the U.S. and other European countries, the Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting market has been very active in M&A deals. Just over two years ago, a major constitutional reform in telecommunications entered into force and the new law is reaching its first anniversary. This new regulatory framework has lifted many entry barriers, including removing the 49% restriction of foreign … Continue Reading
US antitrust lessons from the proposed Comcast/TWC merger
Comcast’s failed acquisition of Time Warner Cable (“TWC”) presents a lesson in the types of antitrust harms that merger enforcers in the United States are willing to pursue.
Using traditional “horizontal” merger analysis, the combination would have resulted in almost no reduction of head-to-head competition, as there were very few geographic areas in which the two companies were head-to-head rivals. … Continue Reading
Europe’s Digital Single Market Strategy – a focus on Pillar 3
In this post (the last in this series), we focus on the initiatives introduced under the third pillar of the European Commission’s Digital Single Market Strategy: Maximising the growth potential of the European Digital Economy
The third pillar is built around the recognition of the pervasive nature of digital technology, and that soon all industry sectors will be digitised … Continue Reading
Europe’s Digital Single Market Strategy – a focus on Pillar 2
On 6 May 2015, the European Commission published its Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe. The Strategy sets out a total of 16 initiatives under 3 pillars which lay the groundwork for Europe’s digital future.
In this post (the third in a series following our overview last week), we focus on the initiatives introduced under the second pillar: Creating … Continue Reading
Europe’s Digital Single Market Strategy – a focus on Pillar 1
On 6 May 2015, the European Commission published its Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe. The Strategy sets out a total of 16 initiatives under 3 pillars which lay the groundwork for Europe’s digital future.
Following our overview last week, in this post we focus on the initiatives introduced under the first pillar: Better access for consumers and businesses … Continue Reading
European Commission publishes its Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe
On 6 May 2015, the European Commission published its Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe. The Strategy sets out a total of 16 initiatives under 3 pillars (based upon key areas for action identified by the Commission earlier this year) which lay the groundwork for Europe’s digital future. The three pillars are:
- 1. Better access for consumers and businesses
Poland: New bill on the advertising of junk food to children
The Polish Ministry of Culture is currently working on a set of amendments to the laws on TV and radio broadcasting. The planned amendments will include a full ban on the advertising of unhealthy food to children under the age of 12. The amendments are yet to be approved by Parliament, but have already been deemed part of a general … Continue Reading
UK: A New Chief Executive for Ofcom at a Pivotal Time for the Telecoms and Media Industry
After Ed Richards announced in October 2014 that he would step down as Ofcom Chief Executive at the end of the year, the hunt for his successor was on and in late December 2014, the Ofcom Board announced the appointment of Sharon White as Chief Executive.
Steve Unger, Ofcom’s Strategy head, is acting as interim chief executive until Ms … Continue Reading
Poland: The self-regulation of major broadcasters and bill concerning the ban on junk food advertising
On 29 October 2014, a group of major Polish broadcasters, including TVN, Polsat, TVP (the Polish national broadcaster) and ITI Neovision entered into a self-regulation agreement on the advertising of foods and drinks to children below the age of 12. The agreement was drafted and executed in cooperation with representatives of the National Broadcasting Council (the Polish media regulator), and … Continue Reading
Launching: LimeGreen IP News
Hogan Lovells’ Intellectual Property, Media and Technology team is excited to announce the launch of LimeGreen IP News.
Complementing our LimeGreen IP know-how site, this new online news platform is designed not only to provide you with detailed discussion on recent case law and decisions but also to provide the latest business critical IP trends and issues from around … Continue Reading
Pay-TV businesses affected by changes in Russian advertising laws
On 1 January 2015 amendments to the Russian Federal law “On advertising” No 38 of 13 March 2006 will come into force. The main change is prohibition of advertisement on Pay-TV channels and/or channels that use technical decoding devices. The law does not apply to Free-TV channels.
The amendments affect all Pay-TV channels notwithstanding the country of origin. The Russian … Continue Reading
The challenges of the new telecommunications and broadcasting law in Mexico
The new President of Mexico Peña Nieto started work on 1 December 2012. The following day, the three main political parties executed the so-called “Pact for Mexico”, which contained several commitments including the reform of the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors.
On 11 June 2013, an historic constitutional reform in telecommunications and broadcasting was published after a fast-track process of just … Continue Reading
Spain’s largest pay-TV broadcaster, DTS, appeals judgment of the General Court of the CJEU backing Spanish ‘telecom tax’
Spain’s largest broadcaster is seeking to annul Spanish taxes on over-the-air television. In 2009, the Spanish government imposed a levy on revenues of telecom operators (0.9%), pay-TV companies (1.5%) and free-to-air commercial broadcasters (3%) to finance the cost of an advertising ban imposed on public broadcaster Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (RTVE). In 2010, the EU Commission approved the … Continue Reading
Rewriting the U.S. Communications Act for the 21st century
The primary law in the United States governing the telecommunications industry is the Communications Act of 1934 (the “Act”).[1] Congress adopted the Act during the Great Depression, at a time when the latest consumer technology was broadcast radio, and last updated the law nearly twenty years ago, when most people accessed the Internet using dial-up and “smartphones” were still science … Continue Reading
USA: Next Steps in the FCC’s Incentive Auction – A Preview of the Seven Near-Term Releases
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) is deep in the midst of planning the world’s first broadcast incentive auction, currently slated for mid-2015. The auction will give over-the-air television broadcasters an opportunity to sell their valuable spectrum rights in a reverse auction process, and the FCC will then repackage this cleared spectrum and auction it to broadband wireless companies, enabling … Continue Reading
The new Mexican Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law
As part of the constitutional reform in telecommunications matters published on 11 June 2013 (the Constitutional Reform), the new Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law (the Law) was finally published on 14 July, and went into effect this past 13 August.
The new Law establishes a new regulatory framework in the telecommunications and broadcasting sector in Mexico, which contains the principles … Continue Reading
Mexican Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law to enter into effect 13 August 2014
On 10 June 2013, after a fast-track approval, the decree to reform the Mexican Constitution (the “Reform”), mainly in telecommunications matters, was enacted by President Enrique Peña Nieto. The Reform recognized as human rights the access to: (i) information and communications technology, and (ii) broadcasting and telecommunications services, including broadband and the Internet. Following the Reform, the Federal Telecommunications and … Continue Reading
Trends in TMT M&A
Peter Watts and Don McGown, corporate TMT partners at Hogan Lovells spoke to Reuters about trends for M&A in the sector. They discussed the drivers for the recent surge in dealmaking and some of the likely future opportunities in a convergent, consolidating and rapidly evolving space. You can watch the interview here.