TV giants issue warning over interference

By Peter Chapman

Date: 16/10/03

A COALITION of the television industry's biggest hitters is seeking to protect the billions of euro it has invested in digital TV from what is perceived as EU interference.

Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB, France's Canal Plus and TF1, along with US software giant Microsoft, are among those anxious about the prospect of the European Commission introducing measures aimed at tackling the present lack of compatibility between systems used to view digital programmes and online services.

Erkki Liikanen, the commissioner for enterprise and the information society, has promised to review the market to make sure the sectors' biggest firms cannot wield total control over their own proprietary systems, such as set-top boxes, and subsequently shut out alternative content providers and smaller broadcasters from their digital packages.

But BSkyB's head of economic policy, Sheila Cassells, chairwoman of the new "Digital Interoperability Forum", said industry should be left alone to develop its own solutions. She said that "disproportionate intervention" from Brussels to impose an interoperability measure could scupper the investments companies have already made to offer digital TV to customers. BSkyB alone has already invested €3 billion in its own 400-channel system in the UK.

"The Commission must realize that there could be a trade-off between mandating a standard and progress to analogue switch-off," said Cassells, referring to the phasing out of traditional technology broadcasts.

The forum plans to bring its message to Brussels with technical demonstrations for MEPs and Commission officials during the coming weeks. These will showcase new digital technology while demonstrating that industry has also worked hard to make systems more compatible with each other.

Liikanen's spokesman Per Haugaard said the Commission is duty-bound to examine the market and issue a ruling next July.

However, he insisted the EU executive has not made up its mind to force companies to use a technical standard, known as the "multimedia home platform" (MHP), developed by firms including Dutch electronics giant Philips.

Supporters of MHP, including many MEPs, say it allows TV programmes or multimedia content to run easily on a single type of set-top box, regardless of whether viewers are watching via cable, a satellite dish or aerial. They claim this means small broadcasters can be sure their programmes would work on any digital system without the need for unecessary "reauthoring".

This is the process whereby the same programme, such as coverage of a tennis tournament, is adapted to make it work with various digital systems with different performance levels - eg satellite digital viewers can get more information about the tennis match they are watching through "red button" interactive technology, than those watching via a conventional rooftop aerial.

In turn, they argue, that would increase the number of programmes available to digital viewers and weaken the stranglehold of the big media firms.

"We are analyzing the situation. But the fact that [digital TV systems] have to be open and interoperable does not necessarily mean we have to have one standard," added Haugaard.

Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society, is to review the European TV market to ensure that the sector's biggest firms cannot wield total control over their own proprietary systems, such as set-top boxes and then block out programmes from alternative providers.
The Commission is considering introducing measures to deal with the lack of compatability between systems used to view digital programmes and online services.