Ofcom has licensed a number of channels aimed specifically at countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
This has come alongside new guidance covering the licensing of channels that broadcast into multiple territories, which the UK regulator published last month.
Ofcom says service providers themselves are responsible for deciding, and notifying, whether their content is different – and for a service to qualify for just a single licence the public must be able to watch the same editorial content and advertisements at the same time. The exception to the rule are some of the timeshifted +1 hour services and regional variations where one or more programmes are occasionally substituted.
Among the channels licensed by Ofcom in October were versions of AXN targeting Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Romania, along with AXN, AXN HD, AXN Crime and AXN Sci-Fi (all Poland).
They also included the SPI TV channels Filmbox and Filmbox HD, both aimed at Romania, and Discovery Communications Europe’s TLC (Poland).
