Budgets committee vets blueprint for Parliament’s web TV channel

Date: 22/09/05

European Parliament plans to create a web TV channel will be discussed at an extraordinary meeting of the assembly's budgets committee in Strasbourg on 27 September.

President Josep Borrell and his 14 vice-presidents recently gave the ambitious project the green light and work will start shortly on designing the channel and producing detailed proposals on programming and content.

However, some MEPs still have reservations about the necessity and value of such a channel while others are concerned about the start-up and running costs. The preparatory work for the channel is expected to come from a reserve of EUR 50 million.

The assembly's Secretary-General, Julian Priestley, appeared before the budgets committee on 14 September to explain to members why Parliament needs the budget reserve. The committee is scheduled to vote on the 2006 budget on 3-4 October.

Michael Shackleton, Parliament's project manager for the web TV channel, said a feasibility study had considered various options for broadcasting its proceedings but had rejected each one because the estimated cost was between EUR 20m and EUR 90m.

This compares with the annual running cost of a web TV channel which, he says, is estimated to be between EUR 2m and EUR 9m.

Such a channel would enable committee meetings and hearings, as well as plenary sessions, to be broadcast to a much wider audience than is currently possible under the Europe by Satellite (EbS) system.

A prototype will be developed to enable MEPs to see what the channel will look like, he says. One model could be the web TV channel set up by the Scottish parliament, which Shackleton describes as "particularly impressive" and the most developed web channel covering any parliament in Europe.

Shackleton believes the channel could be up and running within two years. "This would be well in advance of the 2009 European elections and would, hopefully, help us generate more voter interest in the work of the Parliament," he adds.

Some MEPs, however, still need to be convinced about the necessity for such a channel. They include Dutch Liberal MEP Jan Mulder, budgets committee deputy chairman, who said: "The cost may be a problem and I am not sure we really need a web TV channel. The whole thing needs to be investigated very thoroughly before we go further."

The committee's chairman, Polish EPP-ED deputy Janusz Lewandowski, said: "A web TV channel is considered the least expensive and most acceptable of the various options which have been under consideration but I accept there is still some scepticism about the idea."

Article anticipates an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets to discuss plans to create a web TV channel, Strasbourg, 27 September 2005. The Parliament's President Josep Borrell and his 14 Vice-Presidents had shortly before given the ambitious project their assent and work was planned to start in short on designing the channel and producing detailed proposals on programming and content. Article features reservations by some MEPs about the necessity and value of such a channel and concerns by others about the start-up and running costs. The preparatory work for the channel was expected to come from a reserve of €50 million.