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euro news_news 24/04/2014 12:19 Page 6 Euro court: ISPs may block pirates he Motion Picture Association (MPA) has welcomed a verdict from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which confirms that blocking infringing sites is a proportionate and valid measure to be implemented by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). According to the MPA, the decision by the CJEU is an important milestone in the creative industries’ ongoing efforts to curb online piracy and sets a clear legal framework across the EU confirming existing national court decisions. Furthermore, it sends a strong signal to ISPs that website blocking is an effective measure to reduce overall infringement. The CJEU re-confirms that T Zaslav eyes top rights for Eurosport David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery Communications, has said that the broadcaster’s acquisition of a controlling interest in pan-European sports channel Eurosport has given it the opportunity to create a bigger and better service, and admitted that it will consider acquiring premium sports rights. Speaking at the FT Digital Media Conference in London, Zaslav said that Discovery now had the ability to go “deep and agressive” in a particular market. Noting that many of Eurosport’s rights were locked in for a number of years (tennis, cycling, winter sports) he suggested that Discovery could get a lot more value out of the 14 EUROMEDIA intermediaries in general are best placed to tackle copyright infringement. On 15 June 2012, the Austrian Supreme Court referred the case, Constantin Film and Wega v. UPC Telekabel Wien, better known as the kino.to case, to the CJEU asking for clarifications about site-blocking and the ability of the creative industries to address online copyright infringement in the EU. Kino.to was one of the largest pirate streaming portal sites for German-speaking territories with a top 40 ranking on Alexa.com and up to four million visitors per day. Chris Marcich, president and managing director of the MPA EMEA, said the verdict meant that rights-holders would continue to have the ability to secure balanced website blocking channel by making it “local”. He said that Discovery would be “careful and thoughtful” as to which rights it targeted in the future, and admitted that it could partner with other players in acquiring rights. “We’ll be keen to look at what’s available.” Describing Eurosport as a “great brand” he said it could emerge as a premier sports brand. Asked about sports rights such as the English Premier League football, Zaslav said: “We have a real advantage keeping the costs of second level sports manageable. The question is do we go up a level. In some cases taking a big swing might make sense to do in a joint bidding. In some cases might make sense to leave bigger high-end sports to big broadcasters. We’ll just have to see.” orders from national courts across the EU to address infringing sites. “I am particularly encouraged by the strong stance the CJEU has taken in relation to the responsibility of intermediaries to address copyright infringement. A sustainable Internet that benefits Cable top-line growth up 5.9% Cable investments in highspeed broadband connections and new service platforms drove topline revenues across Europe up 5.9% to €21.9 billion in 2013, according to new IHS statistics released by Cable Europe, the industry’s trade association, at Cable Congress 2014 in Amsterdam. The more than €1 billion increase in annual revenues benefited from 9.1% growth in broadband revenues, 6.5% growth in telephony revenues and a greater share of TV revenues (more than 70%) than ever before. Cable Europe president Manuel Kohnstamm said the past year had seen significant transformation and change in the industry. “All of us feel good about cable’s ability to grow through these cycles. As our customers increasingly go digital, overthe-top and outside the all must operate fairly, with proportionate and balanced rules. We must all play a constructive role in this aim including search engines who continue to lead consumers to illegal moneymaking sites,” he declared. “The film industry is working hard every day to develop new, innovative and consumer-friendly platforms delivering the shows and movies that audiences want to see – whilst ensuring that the creators and makers get compensated for their hard work. The result is that citizens in Europe now have access to more audiovisual content on more devices than ever before, including over 3,000 legal on demand video services. Today’s result means that these services will be competing on a more level playing field,” he stated. home, cable is positioned as the future of entertainment,” he declared. “Cable is a shining star at a time when Eur