Dispute over funding for wide-screen television

Date: 01/05/1997

By Chris Johnstone

EUROPEAN Commissioners are set to clash over whether to support fresh funds for wide-screen television promotion in a dispute which has been blown up into a matter of principle.

Budget Commissioner Erkki Liikanen has sparked the clash with Industry and Telecommunications Commissioner Martin Bangemann by calling for the plug to be pulled on the controversial wide-screen television programme.

Bangemann will today (30 April) try to save a slimmed-down version of the previous four-year programme with a plea for a truncated two-year scheme to be kept alive with a cash lifeline of 50 million ecu.

His officials argue that while the format has achieved satisfactory audience figures in France and Germany, it has failed to make a big impact elsewhere. But opponents say Bangemann has already won a large share of the funding needed for other pet projects and failed to highlight wide-screen television as a priority in early budget talks.

The first 228-million-ecu programme was aimed at creating the environment for wide-screen television by sponsoring programme-makers who produced films in the 16:9 format and broadcasters who screened them.

However, the chances of winning further cash support when the current programme ends in June have been jeopardised by a damning report on the scheme by the Court of Auditors.

The auditors highlighted severe shortcomings in the Commission's surveillance of subsidies to programme producers to compensate them for the extra costs of making material in the 16:9 cinema-style quality format.

Among the horror stories revealed was the case of the Commission's vain attempts to claw back 125,825 ecu in advances paid to an independent Dutch producer after it became clear that the production would not get off the ground.

The management of the first programme was initially handed over to a European interest group made up of broadcasters, manufacturers, film and programme producers. But Vision 1250 was unable to keep check on the extra costs for which companies were entitled to claim 50&percent; to 80&percent; subsidies, said the auditors' report.

It attacked the use of funds to subsidise the broadcasting of wide-screen programmes which attracted only narrow audiences.

The Commission contests much of the criticism, especially the allegation that the overall effect has been to boost sales of Japanese and Korean wide-screen televisions. But it concedes that the management of any new programme must be revised to give better value for money.