In a surprise move, Ofcom and ATVOD have announced that the regulation of video-on-demand services will be removed from ATVOD (to whom it was delegated) and brought in-house in Ofcom from 1st January.
This is potentially very significant, although the ramifications are unknown at present. Certainly, ATVOD has failed to offer value for money: at a cost to industry of around £500,000 per year, its only action of note has been to force a number of small porn companies out of business, and drive others out of the UK. Although it claims a remit to “protect minors”, it is hard to see how it has achieved this.
Ofcom is a huge and powerful regulator, with TV censorship among its many roles, and is very likely lobbying for a strong Internet censorship role: something this campaign was brought into existence to oppose.
So a cheerful farewell to ATVOD, which most certainly won’t be missed by the porn industry. The question remains though as to whether this move will be for better or worse.
Source: Ofcom to take over VoD regulation from ATVOD » Digital TV Europe
With age verificaion very much on the table right now it would have rendered ATVOD obsolete in the short term
I suspect OFCOM will continue what ATVOD started but with a mightier hand in bringing decisions to a sqift conclusion and having the power to block sites easier than they would have afforded ATVOD but that is pure conjecture on my part at this point
atvod already got what they wanted into law, so now it doesn’t matter who’s doing the regulating, weather ofcom will go after porn the same way atvod did however is a different question.