Village Roadshow will be one of the first rights holders to put new site-blocking laws to the test, confirming it is preparing an application to the Federal Court under the Government’s anti-piracy legislation. While the site-blocking laws came into effect in June, rights holders have held back from using the laws to shut off access …

Australia might need to start having a conversation about Net neutrality. That’s the assessment of NBN chairman and former Telstra CEO Ziggy Switkowski, who says the entertainment industry is facing a major shift as broadband becomes the main delivery channel for content in the home through ‘over-the-top’ (OTT) services. With consumption of subscription video expected to skyrocket in the coming …

“Hey Cortana, how many dollarydoos will it cost me to get to Bondi Beach?” While it may take some time for Cortana to pick up the full Australian lexicon, Microsoft has announced that its “personal digital assistant” will be available on Windows 10 devices in Australia from today. Just like Apple’s voice assistant Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana learns the speech patterns …

Telstra says it has pushed “beyond the 4G barrier” after achieving 1Gbps speeds during a successful end-to-end trial on its commercial mobile network. The telco achieved the impressive speeds by aggregating different spectrum bands on its network. Telstra used 100Mhz of spectrum across five different 4G channels to carry the mobile signal, a technology known as carrier aggregation. Carrier aggregation …

The world is about to be treated to a lot more Chet Faker, Boy & Bear and Courtney Barnett with news that Triple J is going global on Beats 1 this month. The ABC radio station announced the news today as part of Ausmusic Month, Triple J’s annual celebration of Australian recording artists, songwriters and music producers. As part of …

Optus is hoping to solve a broadband bugbear of renters and regional Australians with the launch of a new Wi-Fi modem powered by its 4G Plus network. Designed as an “out-of-the box” solution for those who move regularly and don’t want the hassle of continuously connecting and disconnecting their service, the Home Wireless Broadband modem can also be used by …

Microsoft has announced a major overhaul of its OneDrive storage plans, blaming a “small number” of over-enthusiastic users for exceeding reasonable use for its unlimited storage service. As a result, Microsoft will not only axe its unlimited storage offering for Office 365 Home, Personal and University subscribers from early 2016, but it will also cut back storage limits on all …

Amaysim is promising to add more value to its mobile plans with a restructure that adds sweeteners like more data, international calling minutes and lower prices across its array of “one decision” plans. The announcement is timely for Australia’s fourth largest telco and largest mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which is set to celebrate its fifth birthday this month. Across …

Football fans will no longer have to subscribe to Foxtel to get their English Premier League fix, with Optus announcing Monday that it has snagged the exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the three years, starting in August 2016. The deal will see Optus offering live broadcast coverage as well as broadband and mobile access for all 380 EPL games …

Nine Entertainment has announced a major overhaul of its network, restructuring its HD broadcasting and pushing all its channels on to a new app that will offering both live-streaming and catch-up content for free. Until now, Nine has offered catch-up TV through its online streaming platform, 9Jumpin. But the network is now upping its game in a bid to take …