| Author (Person) | Chapman, Peter |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.10, No.28, 29.7.04 |
| Publication Date | 29/07/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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By Peter Chapman Date: 29/07/04 RUPERT Murdoch's BSkyB has won a reprieve from the European Commission after Brussels scrapped plans to force TV companies to throw away billions of euro-worth of investments in their own digital technology in favour of an EU-wide standard. Murdoch's company is the EU's biggest investor in interactive TV systems, plunging €3.5 billion into setting up services received by seven million homes in the UK. They allow the viewer to interact directly with TV broadcasts, to play games, or send messages. For example, sports fans can click onto special menus during a soccer match for extra information about players and the teams. The Commission has been weighing the arguments in favour of mandating an "open standard" for the software underneath the set-top boxes that are needed to view the services. One standard that fits the bill is the multimedia home platform (MHP). This has been approved by European standards bodies and published in the Official Journal of the European Communities. Supporters of MHP - used in Germany - claim it would help nurture a single market for digital TV and content by ensuring all programmes can work on any set-top box without having to be "reauthored". They also fear big media companies would be able to act as "gatekeepers" - abusing control over their systems and making it hard for broadcasters to develop and deliver their own interactive services. But European Voice understands the Commission will not impose MHP onto the market. Olli Rehn, the new commissioner for enterprise and the information society, believes imposing a single norm could hurt the companies that have already invested in digital TV - and would undermine the internal market, which allows free movement of goods and services. However, the Finn still sees scope for boosting take-up of open standards - in practice MHP, developed by a consortium of European TV experts, including Dutch electronics giant Philips. First, he will set up a "member state group" on MHP implementation. He will issue guidelines setting out the scope for government subsidies to consumers for set-top boxes - within the realms of the Union's state-aid rulebook. He will monitor access of other broadcasters and production companies to proprietary systems, such as BSkyB's - to ensure they are not unfairly shut out. He will review the market situation again in 2005. The decision is set to be announced tomorrow (30 July). BSkyB spokesman Robert Fraser refused to comment on the issue before the company receives official confirmation. But the company's head of economics Sheila Cassells said recently that an EU-imposed standard would have meant millions of set-top boxes with an expected life of ten years would have to be scrapped. A source at the Digital Interoperability Forum, a group that includes BSkyB, French rival Canal Plus, Microsoft and NTL, which have all used non-MHP systems, issued a cautious welcome. "Our members would have concerns about any proposals to allow member states to promote technical standards at the expense of others," he said. German MEP Ruth Hieronymi, a member of the supervisory board of German public broadcaster WRD, welcomed the go-ahead for limited subsidies to the interactive TV sector but said the Commission should have acted earlier. "Member states can start to give subsidies - therefore the policy is OK. But it is high noon. It should have acted a year ago." An aide to Rehn said subsidies would make it much easier for customers to afford higher specification set-top boxes, such as MHP receivers, rather than more basic systems. But he insisted the hand-outs could not specify one technology above another. "Such consumer subsidies need to be technologically neutral and must be notified and conform to state-aid rules. They should be temporary and reduce in proportion to the falling cost of receivers, in order to avoid over-compensation." The plan would not allow subsidies direct to companies, he added. The competition directorate-general is already probing regional subsidies to Deutsche Telekom and digital TV broadcasters to switch their analogue TV networks to digital. A similar investigation has been launched into state aid for Sweden's digital terrestrial television network, which is operated by Teracom. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Business and Industry |
