Britain to probe Sky takeover bid

The British government said it had ordered an investigation of the News Corporation's proposed takeover of British Sky Broadcasting, the biggest pay television company in Britain, reports the New York Times.

The move came after rival media organisations complained that the development would bring too many media assets under one corporate umbrella.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, said he had called on Ofcom, Britain's media regulator, to investigate whether the deal would restrict the range of media options available to the public.

The Nepalese Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) has cancelled broadcast licences of 65 FM radios and a dozen television channels which have failed to operate on time, Republica reported, reveals Nepal News.

According to the daily, the MoIC decided to revoke such licenses to 'discourage the tendency of holding on to the broadcast license for long'. However, the ministry is yet to issue the public notice regarding this.

The paper quoted MoIC undersecretary Shailaja Regmi Bhattarai as saying that they are preparing to issue a public notice about the withdrawal of the broadcast licenses.

Florida officials completed the state's first end-to-end cell broadcast technology pilot of the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) standard in a public/private partnership with Blackboard, Alcatel-Lucent and CellCast Technologies, states Urgent Communications.

The companies tested the CMAS standard by delivering emergency alerts to handsets on the MetroPCS wireless network throughout Florida's Pasco and Polk counties, said Jim Johnston, operations coordinator for Pasco County.

Johnston said the one-to-many technology can support the dissemination of imminent threat and presidential alerts, as mandated under the Warning, Alert and Response Network Act of 2006.