Regulation

Here is a round-up of some other recent interactive TV-related stories that we didn't have room for in this issue:

The BBC's governing body, the BBC Trust, on Tuesday published the conclusions of its review of the BBC's on-demand services, including the BBC iPlayer (note: the BBC is expected to announce the addition of a number of social features to the iPlayer today). It also announced an eight-week consultation on changes that the BBC Executive has proposed to the corporation's online programming syndication policy. The proposed changes would mean that BBC programs could not be made available on third-party VOD platforms on an unbundled basis, but would instead always be presented as part of a complete iPlayer-branded offering.

DVR vendor/service provider, TiVo, has strongly criticized the US cable industry in a response to a recently issued RFI from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that seeks "comment on how the Commission can encourage innovation in the market for video devices that will assist the Commission’s development of a National Broadband Plan" (note: for more on the RFI, see the article published on itvt.com, December 7th).

The Technical Committee of the European Broadcasting Union (note: the latter, generally referred to as the EBU, is a confederation of 75 mostly public-service broadcasters from 56 countries) announced this week that it has agreed to a set of measures for Hybrid Broadcast Broadband (HBB) services and devices.

The UK's media regulator, Ofcom, on Monday launched a consultation on VOD services in that country. The consultation--which will affect such services as BBC iPlayer, 4OD, ITV Player, SkyPlayer and Demand Five, which are offered on the open Internet as well as through Virgin Media, Sky and BT Vision--is in response to the European Union's new Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which requires that "TV-like" VOD services should be regulated as of December 19th, 2009.

Project Canvas--a joint initiative between the BBC, UK commercial broadcaster ITV, and UK incumbent telco BT, which seeks to develop a common standard and interface for the delivery of online catch-up services such as the BBC iPlayer and the ITV player, as well as other Internet-based VOD services, to broadband-connected set-top boxes (specifically, set-top boxes designed for reception of the UK's free-to-air multichannel TV services, Freeview and Freesat)--may be facing the same kind of regulatory scrutiny that led to the demise of Project Kangaroo, the joint VOD venture between the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 (note: for more on Kangaroo's demise, see the article posted on itvt.com April 20th).

During a hearing Thursday on Internet privacy issues, lawmakers from the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet signalled that they will be closely scrutinizing the consumer-privacy implications of the US cable industry's plans to launch a common platform for interactive and addressable advertising (note: those plans are being implemented by a cable industry-backed company called Canoe Ventures). As [itvt] was not able to be in Washington, DC to attend the hearing, we are referring our readers to the Associated Press's write-up.