BRUSSELS -- Europe is in danger of missing its 2012 deadline for switching from analog to digital broadcasts thanks to squabbles over standards, the European Parliament said Wednesday.
In a stiff message to European Union governments attempting to manage the switchover, Euro-MPs said that open standards must be agreed upon if digital and interactive television are to succeed.
They said that a failure to agree to open standards and interoperability will also restrict viewer choice and threaten media pluralism and cultural diversity. The warnings came in a report voted on by the Parliament in Strasbourg, France, which looked at platforms, operating systems and hardware devices for distributing interactive TV. It noted that interactive television was so far less commercially successful than expected, and called on the European Commission -- the EU's executive authority -- to study the reasons for the setback.
The report, drafted by French Socialist Henri Weber, said that consumers face buying lots of receivers with "application program interfaces" to ensure the different broadcast technologies worked with one another.
In a stiff message to European Union governments attempting to manage the switchover, Euro-MPs said that open standards must be agreed upon if digital and interactive television are to succeed.
They said that a failure to agree to open standards and interoperability will also restrict viewer choice and threaten media pluralism and cultural diversity. The warnings came in a report voted on by the Parliament in Strasbourg, France, which looked at platforms, operating systems and hardware devices for distributing interactive TV. It noted that interactive television was so far less commercially successful than expected, and called on the European Commission -- the EU's executive authority -- to study the reasons for the setback.
The report, drafted by French Socialist Henri Weber, said that consumers face buying lots of receivers with "application program interfaces" to ensure the different broadcast technologies worked with one another.
- 11/15/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BRUSSELS -- The European Parliament is due Tuesday to uphold European rules on television quotas, backing claims that the limits on American imports help boost local productions. European MPs in Strasbourg are expected to back a report drafted by France's Henri Weber that says the European Union's controversial 1989 Television Without Frontiers directive has succeeded. "Indicators in all but a few cases show a rise in the programming of European works," the report says, adding that fears about compliance have been overdone. The parliament remains opposed to any expansion of the current quota system, with European MPs preferring voluntary initiatives. But the report says the EU should keep a close eye on new developments in the constantly evolving broadcasting industry in order to ensure European programs continue to thrive.
BRUSSELS -- Euro-MPs on Wednesday backed calls for tighter rules to separate television content from advertising. The European Parliament's culture and education committee voted to support measures set out in a report that would prevent TV productions and programming from becoming too commercially biased. The report, drafted by French MEP Henri Weber, warned that some European Union (EU) governments were particularly lax in applying the current rules on advertising, and this undermined the "cultural integrity" of programming.
- 6/15/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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