Consultation on VOD regulation to be launched by Ofcom

Following recent changes to a number of European laws, the UKs telecommunications regulator has announced that it will be launching a consultation regarding how Video-on demand services will be regulated in the UK.

A consultation on the regulation of UK Video-on-demand services over broadband in the future has now been launched by Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator.

A devolution of regulation into two separate regulatory bodies, which will be the Advertising Standards Authority and the Association for Television on Demand (ATVOD) will also be included in the proposal by Ofcom.

From December 19th any content on VOD services, which will include services like 4OD, SkyPlayer, Demand Five, BBC iPlayer and ITV Player will need to be regulated under revised European laws. Ofcom and the BBC Trust will jointly regulate BBC iPlayer. Other VOD services will be regulated by the Association for Television on Demand (ATVOD), while the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) will regulate any advertising that is included in any of these services under the latest proposal put forward by Ofcom.

Although broadcast service providers that are currently licensed in the UK are required to adhere to Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code, the programming that will be available on VOD services will not be subject to this code, which is quite significant. Private websites, unmoderated user generated material similar to that found on services like YouTube would be exempt from regulation as it is currently anticipated that only “TV-like” services would be controlled by these new regulations.

The consultation will be open for submissions from anyone and the date set for final submissions has been set as the 26th October this year. Once the consultation period has expired Ofcom will consider the submissions and advise of the results at some point in the near future.

Source – IPTV-News