(04-05-2010 07:55 )BLUEBIRD OFFICIAL Wrote: (04-05-2010 07:30 )Hexit Wrote: i know you aint my biggest fan. but i have 1 genuine question.
will you be willing to contest any fines or sanctions imposed by ofcom in court?.
if so which standard, encrypted, fta or both.
you gotta admit that the state of so called British adult entertainment on tv is pretty patronizing to say the least, and really needs to come into line with the rest of Europe.
For legal reasons, we can't go into details, but Ofcom's powers are limited by the territoriality of the licence holder.
Hey - we had a good argument, cleared the air, and now we move on to have fun at the party
My interpretation of Bluebirds comment about territoriality is posted in the Broadcasting Regulations thread/Ofcom Current Investigations.
The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (2010/13/EU) that came into force on the 5th May 2010 permits a broadcaster who is based (head office) in a member country of the EU and this is also where editorial decisions regarding content for the channel(s) is made to be governed by that countries rules/interpretation of the AVMS Directive. They are then permitted to broadcast content into other member states using any platform for that service.
So the scenario could be Bluebird TV head office based in Holland/Spain/Italy etc and all editorial decisions about content, schedules etc also made at this location. They could then have studio's in the UK and use a media platform (SKY) to carry their broadcasts. The content viewed both encrypted and un-encrypted would not fall under the juristiction of the UK (Ofcom).
Holland would be a good choice as the majority of the country speak english. I read it that you must provide a service within that country as well.
Now here's the interesting bit. If the country where the head office is located permitted R18 material to be shown encrypted then that would be the standard allowed to be shown in the UK encrypted. I am aware that some european countries also allow full nudity under a 16 age banner at certain times of the day and again this would be permitted.
Now Ofcom has a no R18 ban on TV within the UK and it would be down to them to seek a proscription order to ban content if it were offensive or harmful but they would have to prove such effects to Parliament. Extremely unlikely.
Now since 2000 when the BBFC were challenged on harm, offence, taste and decency and lost in the courts they then had to start permiting R18 category movies (subject to guidance concerning consensual sex, racist/hate material etc) to be sold in licensed sex shops.
Taste and decency have since been dropped as criteria for judgement.
The last time a proscription order was issued by Ofcom through the minister was in 2005 for the italian channel Extasi tv for transmitting violent pornography.
Now i don't know where Bluebird will be based but they have the potential to shake up the uk tv industry and have already stated on this forum that they would be showing 18 content on TV and R18 live show.
Now the word is that they will start transmitting in June/July but they have yet to apply to Ofcom for any new or transfer any existing licenses. Food for thought. See my previous post on this thread number 165
The above details are my reading/understanding of the directive so don't base your expectations on them but it's a consideration.
http://www.babeshows.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=20358