TV industry faces change of direction

Date: 19/09/1996

By Chris Johnstone

KEY decisions on EU moves to boost wide-screen television are to follow European Commission consultations with broadcasters and manufacturers later this month.

A conference in London on 25 and 26 September will address the crucial question of whether the Commission's past efforts have been sufficient to build a stand-alone wide-screen industry and, if not, what new initiatives are needed.

“We must decide what new directions should be taken,” said an official.

The Commission's four-year 228-million-ecu programme to encourage broadcasters to produce and screen films in the 16:9 format expires in June 1997.

A mixture of 50&percent; and 80&percent; subsidies has produced mixed results across Europe and officials are considering the now pressing question of what should come next.

Wide-screen broadcasting has been taken up most enthusiastically in Germany, France and Belgium, but even in these countries it remains an open question whether a big enough audience has been developed for 16:9 format transmissions to survive without subsidies.

In Italy and some smaller EU countries, the Commission programme has barely got off the starting blocks.

The original Commission funding was designed to break a stalemate situation in which neither broadcasters nor equipment makers would enter the wide-screen market without a lead from the other.

Even ahead of the conference, it is clear that the Commission will have problems making the same level of funding available for its wide-screen promotion budget as over the past four years.

It is also likely that the next programme, if agreed, will be limited to three or even two years.

So far, half a million 16:9 wide-screen sets have been sold in Europe, with a 64&percent; rise in sales between 1994 and 1995. Philips, France's Thomson, Finland's Nokia, and Japan's Sony and Matsushita are among the main wide-screen television producers.

Rolf Wagner, chairman of the European Consumer Manufacturers' Association, says more Commission funding - targeted in particular towards boosting public awareness of the 16:9 format - is needed to stimulate a big enough market for television sets from European makers.

“We have lost out to the Japanese twice before and we do not want to do it again,” he added.

Wagner, who works for Thomson Multimedia, warned that Japanese producers could corner the market and dump cheap sets if the Europeans were unable to develop the wide-screen market.

“It is not happening at the moment but there is a danger it could,” he said.