Ofcom Chairman Objects To EU Podcast Regulation

LORD CURRIE, the chairman of Ofcom, hit out yesterday at European Commission proposals that could lead to regulation of podcasting, saying that the market was too diverse for tighter controls. In April Ofcom expressed its objections to European proposals to regulate video weblogs, and Lord Currie said yesterday that this also applied to the diverse nature of podcasts.

Ofcom believes that regulation of these markets would be too complex and practically impossible because of the number of sites that would have to be regulated.

The EU move comes as the Commission seeks to update the 17-year-old Television Without Frontiers Directive and includes for the first time rules to govern “non-linear audio- visual services”. - Amanda Andrews, Times Online

See also the Open Rights Group wiki page on the directive.