COMECON MEDIA

Link  - Source: EU Commission Strasbourg, 28 March 2019 What is the current situation for online transmission and retransmission of television and radio programmes? Broadcasters  are increasingly offering their broadcasts online (for instance through their simulcasting or catch-up services). However, such online programming often remains unavailable in the other Member States, even if there is interest abroad to access it. The clearance of rights for such uses can be particularly burdensome: a broadcaster needs to obtain authorizations from various rightsholders, for different categories of works and other protected content, and separately for every Member State, where the programme will be available online. Retransmission services  aggregate TV and radio channels into packages. They are increasingly provided using technologies other than cable (for example IPTV), but the current rules facilitating rights' clearance for operators of those services are limited to retransmi

In December 2018, the co-legislators reached an agreement on a European Commission proposal for facilitating the cross-border provision of online TV and radio content. The co-legislators agreed to extend the 'country of origin' principle to a limited set of online services, and to facilitate the licensing of retransmission services over the internet under certain conditions. Furthermore, at the request of the European Parliament, the compromise text contains new rules on 'direct injection', a process used increasingly by broadcasters to transmit their programmes to the public. The compromise also includes a change of the instrument from a regulation into a directive in order to leave flexibility to the Member States to implement the new rules on 'direct injection'. The Member States' negotiators and the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) endorsed the political agreement in January 2019. The compromise text must now gain the approval of the European Parliament du

Link March 8, 2019 United States Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO): DRL Promoting Internet Freedom in Ukraine This is the announcement of funding opportunity number SFOP0005589 Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number: 19.345 Type of Solicitation: Full and Open Competition Application Deadline: Tuesday, April 23, 2019 at 11:59 PM EST Funding Floor (lowest $$ value): $500,000 Funding Ceiling (highest $$ value): $1,180,500 Anticipated Number of Awards: 1-2 Type of Award: Grant and/or Cooperative Agreement Period of Performance (example 12-18 months, 2 -5 years): 1-3 years Anticipated Time to Award (pending availability of funds): 3-6 months A. Project Description The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) announces an open competition for organizations interested in submitting applications for programs that promote Internet freedom in Ukraine. In support of the