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Latest news and views from informitv

Key question raised about Media Bill

HbbTV embraces DVB-I

ITVX celebrates first anniversary

Changing bill
The television licence fee in the United Kingdom has been frozen at £159 per year but is set to rise in line with inflation over the next four years, as determined by the consumer price index. That has fallen from 9.6% to 4.7% and may fall further by April, so any expectation of a 9% increase seems unlikely to be agreed. The Culture Secretary has suggested as much after the Prime Minister said that the BBC needs to be more realistic. Meanwhile, the Media Bill is making its way through the parliamentary process. This week informitv can exclusively reveal a strange change that seems to have been introduced since the Draft Media Bill was published, which appears to give special dispensation to the BBC that undermines the level playing field the legislation is supposed to achieve.

William Cooper
Editor

Key question raised about Media Bill
The Media Bill is currently making its progress through Parliament in the United Kingdom. A surprising clause appears to have been inserted since the Draft Media Bill was first published. It appears to give the BBC a special exemption from the must-offer and must-carry obligations for online services.
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HbbTV embraces DVB-I
The DVB-I standard for service discovery emerged as a key theme at the HbbTV Symposium in Naples, the eleventh annual meeting of the hybrid broadcast broadband television association. There was general recognition that the two standards are highly complementary. The German DVB-I Pilot service was among the winners of the HbbTV Awards, despite the home advantage of the Italian pilot service that has also moved into its second phase.
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ITVX celebrates first anniversary
ITVX celebrates its first birthday on 8 December. ITV claims 2.7 billion streams in the first year since the online video service was relaunched. It is a big number but what does it really mean? Interestingly, ITVX is not simply pursuing popularity. Laudably, ITV is also going to launch 12 regional news services through the online platform, as well as a ‘pop up’ news channel.
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HbbTV Operator Application update

Media Bill debate begins

European spending on original programming

LG extends webOS to smart monitors

Samsung TV Plus gains viewing options

RTÉ sets out new direction


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