China restricts online broadcasting

China has stepped up its tight grip on the Internet with the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV ordering anyone wishing to run TV shows or other content on the Internet to apply for a licence before broadcasting online, reports Irish Times.com.

The new rules are a blow to foreign producers trying to break into the potentially lucrative, but heavily regulated, Chinese market because it effectively means only state-approved TV stations and cinemas will be able to import content for Web casting.

The rules come soon after a ban on the online TV site YouTube, which cannot be accessed in China because of footage broadcast showing the beating of protesters by Chinese police during last year's riots in Tibet.

New ways in which people are accessing television content, such as the BBC iPlayer, could force a rethink in how the TV licence is paid, according to the BBC's independent regulator, the BBC Trust, states Business Week.

The independent regulator says issues created by recent advances in the way people access television content need to be taken into account and that legislative change is likely to be required in order to reflect technology changes in the licence fee regulations.

People who only watch television via the BBC's online on-demand TV service iPlayer are not legally obliged to pay for a TV licence. The BBC Trust added that it regularly reviews the impact of new technology on audience behaviour but has so far found that online on-demand viewing tends to supplement television rather than replace it.

NetMix Broadcasting Network has completed building the necessary infrastructure to roll out its broadcasting network worldwide, says TMCNet.

The company has completed building the infrastructure needed to support up to 10 million listeners in North and South America and throughout Europe. This allows NetMix to provide 128k audio streams to thousands of online listeners including the recently added mobile applications.

NetMix Broadcasting has chosen to deploy its network with state-of-the-art broadband technology as well as advance cluster computing technology. The combination will allow NetMix to capitalise on all areas of Internet broadcasting growth.