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INTERNET

Germans not fussed by TV on smartphones

For many, watching television is all about the size of the screen and the sharpest image rather than mobile access. Only one in four Germans told a poll released on Thursday they want TV channels on their smartphone.

Published: 30 May 2013 12:25 CEST
Germans not fussed by TV on smartphones
Photo: DPA

Mobile phone television has been thrown around as the ‘next big thing’ for a while, but as smart phones gain in popularity in Germany there seems to still be little interest in tiny, portable telly.

Just 23 percent told pollsters YouGov that they would watch TV on their phone. Half of these said that it was out of fear of taking up too much of their data plan and costing too much money.

Even if a phone were to be connected to WiFi, and thus the user be freed of worrying about using up data, only 30 percent – seven percent more – said they would use it.

For the poll, YouTube asked 1,575 Germans between January and February

DPA/The Local/jcw

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BUSINESS

Google News to return to Spain after seven-year spat

Google announced Wednesday the reopening of its news service in Spain next year after the country amended a law that imposed fees on aggregators such as the US tech giant for using publishers’ content.

Published: 4 November 2021 10:15 CET
Google News to return to Spain after seven-year spat
Google argues its news site drives readers to Spanish newspaper and magazine websites and thus helps them generate advertising revenue.Photo: Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

The service closed in Spain in December 2014 after legislation passed requiring web platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay publishers to reproduce content from other websites, including links to their articles that describe a story’s content.

But on Tuesday the Spanish government approved a European Union copyright law that allows third-party online news platforms to negotiate directly with content providers regarding fees.

This means Google no longer has to pay a fee to Spain’s entire media industry and can instead negotiate fees with individual publishers.

Writing in a company blog post on Wednesday, Google Spain country manager Fuencisla Clemares welcomed the government move and announced that as a result “Google News will soon be available once again in Spain”.

“The new copyright law allows Spanish media outlets — big and small — to make their own decisions about how their content can be discovered and how they want to make money with that content,” she added.

“Over the coming months, we will be working with publishers to reach agreements which cover their rights under the new law.”

News outlets struggling with dwindling print subscriptions have long seethed at the failure of Google particularly to pay them a cut of the millions it makes from ads displayed alongside news stories.

Google argues its news site drives readers to newspaper and magazine websites and thus helps them generate advertising revenue and find new subscribers.

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