Videotron licensed Comcast's Xfinity X1 platform for use in its own IPTV service, said the Canadian cable ISP Tuesday. Canada's Rogers Communications and Shaw, plus Cox Communications in the U.S., have also licensed the X1 platform (see 1612160009).
Viacom will launch its Paramount+ subscription VOD service, offering Paramount movie and Viacom TV content, Oct. 1, it announced Friday. It said Paramount+ will be part of the user interface for a variety of pay-TV services in Denmark, Sweden and Norway and available for premium subscribers. The company didn't comment on a time frame for North American availability.
When the U.K. leaves the EU, new arrangements will be needed to govern the free flow of personal data between the two jurisdictions, said a paper from the British government's Department of Exiting the European Union Thursday. It said a new data exchange model "could build on the existing adequacy model, by providing sufficient stability for businesses, public authorities and individuals" and help regulators on both sides continue to cooperate and communicate. The department said regulatory cooperation between the two sides is important because the general data protection regulation, which will become effective in nine months (see 1708210030), will continue to apply to U.K. businesses and provide "greater ongoing certainty." The agency said the U.K., set to replace a 1998 data protection law, wants both sides to recognize each other's frameworks early on after the exit is complete and to ensure data flows with other countries "with existing EU adequacy decisions" can continue.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is asking for input by Oct. 2 as it builds its 2017 notorious markets list. The list identifies “online and physical marketplaces that reportedly engage in and facilitate substantial copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting,” USTR said in Wednesday's Federal Register. The 2016 list identified counterfeit marketplaces including Taobao and The Pirate Bay (see 1612210068).
The BBC is working with Microsoft to build an “experimental version” of its iPlayer internet-streaming catchup service that uses artificial intelligence “to allow individuals to sign in to BBC services using their unique voiceprint and to talk to their TV to select what they want to watch,” Cyrus Saihan, the broadcaster’s head of digital partnerships, blogged Wednesday. A voice print is matched “to a sample of your voice stored in the cloud,” he said: AI software then “checks that you are who you say you are and then signs you in."
The Massachusetts-based Industrial Internet Consortium and China-based Edge Computing Consortium signed a memorandum of understanding to advance interoperability and portability of the industrial IoT, said a joint Wednesday news release. Activities will include identifying and sharing industrial IoT best practices, developing test beds and R&D projects, and working on standardization. The groups said they will meet Aug. 30 in Beijing.
Technology-related trade barriers that prevent U.S. companies from selling products and services abroad should be a government focus, the Information Technology Industry Council responded (release here) to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative request for comments about trade agreement violations and abuses. Comments were sought after an April executive order. Data localization, cloud computing restrictions, regulations on online service providers and customs, copyright issues and surrender of source code, encryption keys and IP were among barriers U.S. companies face overseas, said ITI. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce called the 1996 Information Technology Agreement "an outstanding example of a trade agreement that lowers tariffs, benefits U.S. exporters and American workers, and promotes innovation" in the U.S. It said the ITA expansion agreed to by 53 World Trade Organization members in December 2015 "will multiply [ITA] benefits" when implemented by 2019, but more "vigorous enforcement" of all agreements is needed, "a goal that sometimes receives only lackluster support in practice."
Intel cleared the last regulatory hurdle in its bid to buy Mobileye, the autonomous-vehicle components supplier, when the Korea Fair Trade Commission approved the deal Monday, Intel said in a Tuesday announcement. Buying Mobileye will enable Intel to deliver “world-class end-to-end solutions” in autonomous driving “at a much lower cost, faster time to market and complete single solutions that our customers are asking for,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich in March when announcing the $15.3 billion cash acquisition (see 1703130015).
Smartphone sales growth in China reversed course in Q2, slipping 3 percent from Q2 2016 to 113 million shipments, Canalys Research reported. Xiaomi replaced Apple as No. 4, shipping just under 15 million phones, up 60 percent from Q2 2016. Samsung also had shipment declines. On the most recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook downplayed reports of a slowing China market.
Joining CableLabs are NBN, Stofa, Nowo Communications and Guangdong Cable, respectively in Australia, Denmark, Portugal and China, said DOJ in Thursday's Federal Register. CableLabs told us it now has 60 members in 35 countries.