Communication
IRIS Plus 2010-6: Switchover to the Digital Dividend
Like Siamese twins, the switchover to digital television is inseparable from the spectrum liberated as a result of the process. The twin of the switchover is called digital dividend. If we look closer at these twins, we realize that they are non-identical, as far as at least one important point...
IRIS Plus 2010-1: Digital Television
Imagine turning on your television and not receiving any signal. For an increasing number of television viewers this could have been the case had they not re-equipped themselves for digital television. To mention only the early birds: Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden completed the...
IRIS Plus 2009-6: The "Telecoms Review": New Impetus for Audiovisual Media?
This IRIS plus examines the review of the European telecommunications regulatory framework. The lead article is as multilayered as the theme itself. Market regulation, spectrum policy, new distribution methods, interoperability, network neutrality, investment protection, "must-carry" obligations,...
IRIS Plus 2008-3: User-Generated Content Services and Copyright
This IRIS plus looks at the EU and US American copyright framework concerning UGC and how it has translated into case law. Suspecting that neither the pending revision of the relevant EU e-commerce Directive nor further court decisions might settle the matter entirely, the article also explores...
IRIS Plus 2007-5: A Post-Soviet Perspective on Licensing Television and Radio
This IRIS plus gives an overview of the different legal frameworks for licensing broadcasting in countries of the former Soviet Union, which all share the experience of a relatively recent launching of licensing systems.
IRIS Plus 2007-2: Broadcasters' Access to Broadcasting Frequencies
The aim of this article is to show how broadcasters obtain their frequencies and who lays down the standards for this process: how is spectrum organised, divided up and ultimately distributed? Who decides on the allocation of transmission capacities and how? This article will also look at new...
IRIS Special 2005 - To Have or Not to Have Must-Carry Rules
Must-carry rules are one string in the regulators' bow regarding their efforts to ensure that all viewers may enjoy a certain basic content package. The establishment of new distribution platforms for television content (mainly cable) seemed to call this aim into question. It was feared that...
IRIS Special 2005: Tomorrow's Delivery of Audiovisual Services - Legal Questions Raised by Digital Broadcasting and Mobile Reception
After taking stock of developments on the television market generally, this IRIS Special begins with a description of how digital terrestrial television has developed and the different services that have become possible as a result of digitalisation. It then goes on to look at those aspects of...
IRIS Special 2004 - Digital Television Glossary
This Digital Television Glossary was commissioned by the Observatory from the Institute of European Media Law (EMR) with a view to creating this IRIS Special and in preparation of the workshop. Concretely, we asked for a description of the functioning of digital television and – in parallel to...
IRIS Special 2004 - Regulating Access to Digital Television - Technical Bottlenecks, Vertically-integrated Markets and New Forms of Media Concentration
Every single aspect of digital television is affected by the question of access control: the compilation and preparation of content to be transported; the transmission and reception of content (encrypted or not), including the necessary technical devices; content bundling; programme selection...