New boosts programmed for wide-screen TV

Date: 28/11/1996

THE first episode of the EU's controversial attempts to boost advanced television is to be followed up by a shorter and cheaper sequel to be unveiled by the European Commission early in the new year.

The latest programme to help the wide-screen industry by sponsoring programme makers and broadcasters who adopt the 16:9 format is unlikely to last more than two years, and will involve significantly lower sums of money than the first 228-million-ecu package.

That project will end by June 1997, after succeeding in achieving satisfactory audience figures in France and Germany but failing to make a big impact elsewhere.

Work on the new programme - a joint initiative by Industry Commissioner Martin Bangemann and Audio-visual Commissioner Marcelino Oreja - has been overshadowed by the need to defend its forerunner from a ferocious attack by the EU's Court of Auditors.

The Commission contests much of the financial watchdog's criticism, in particular the allegation that the overall effect of the project has been to boost sales of Japanese and Korean wide-screen television sets.

However, it has agreed that the management of any new programme must be revised to ensure better value for money in future.

The auditors' report highlighted 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 rather than the conventional 4:3 format.

The whole programme was aimed at solving the chicken and egg conundrum of which comes first: the television sets to broadcast cinema quality images or the programmes to screen on them?

Among the horror stories revealed in the Court's report was that of the Commission's vain attempts to claw back 125,825 ecu in advances paid to an independent Dutch film-maker, after it became clear that the production being funded would never get off the ground.

A Spanish production company created explicitly to feed off the programme funding won 700,000 ecu in aid, even though it only had 6,000 ecu of its own capital and no other financial support. Its backing was cut to 300,000 ecu after an investigation found its films to be of poor quality.

The entire management of the programme aid was handed over by the Directorate-General for cultural and audio-visual affairs (DGX) to a European interest group comprising broadcasters, film and programme producers and manufacturers.

But the group, Vision 1250, was unable to keep a check on the extra programme costs for which companies were entitled to claim 50&percent; to 80&percent; subsidies from the Commission, according to the auditors' report.

The watchdog said that Vision 1250's management mandate was not helped by finding itself in a precarious position after the Commission failed to renew its annual contract in time during the last four months of 1995.

The Directorate-General for information technology and telecommunications (DGXIII), which shares responsibility for the sector, found the scrutiny of subsidies to broadcasters for screening 16:9 programmes easier.

But the auditors' report criticised the fact that many of the programmes produced with the help of EU aid were only transmitted to narrow audiences.

Prime time broadcasters were deterred from using the 16:9 format for more popular programmes because of the black bands which appear at the top and bottom of the image when films made for wide-screen sets are seen on ordinary televisions.