ATVOD ruling overturned on appeal

UK video-on-demand regulator ATVOD said it would consider carefully a court appeal that overturned its decision that Channel Flip Media was offering a TV-like on-demand service on its website and that it should be subject to ATVOD regulation.

In 2011 ATVOD ruled that the Channel Flip service – which offered consumers on-demand access to short-form comedy videos by well-known TV personalities – met those criteria and that Channel Flip Media Ltd was in breach of its statutory obligation to notify the service to ATVOD.

According to ATVOD, the channelflip.com website subsequently underwent significant changes and no longer resembles the original service. The appeal decision turned on whether the videos were comparable, in form and content, to those normally included in television broadcast services and took account of research conducted a year after ATVOD had made its decision.

“The question of whether video content is ‘comparable’ to programmes normally included in television broadcasts is far from straightforward. We will now consider the appeal decision carefully and analyse the implications for future decisions as to whether a particular service is, or is not, subject to regulations designed to protect consumers,” said ATVOD CEO Pete Johnson.