World Cup Gives Europe Golden HDTV Promotional Opportunity
BERLIN -- As Europe sets its eyes toward next year’s World Cup football to at long last get the ball rolling on HDTV, industry executives at last week’s Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) trade fair here looked wistfully at the U.S. as having experienced the “reality” of HDTV the past 7 years.
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Congress returns from recess this week intent on taking up DTV legislation to set a hard transition date in 2009, though with many unanswered questions about tuner subsidies and how an analog cutoff will sit with an unsuspecting American public. In Europe, say executives we polled, the World Cup is driving the fervor to move forward on HDTV. Meanwhile, they say, frustration with the European Union’s “wait & see” posture on HDTV has boiled over, as delay has hurt the CE, broadcast, cable and satellite industries. There’s now a bit of movement: EU ministers have acknowledged that Europe is years behind the U.S. and the rest of the world on HDTV.
In an IFA keynote Sat., Philips Consumer Electronics CEO Rudy Provoost called for “a clear regulatory framework” and decisive leadership from EU regulators in Brussels to spur a “completely smooth transition” to high- definition DTV in Europe and reallocation of the analog spectrum to wireless and other uses. Provoost, who also is chmn. of the trade group EICTA -- the European Assn. for Information Systems, Communications Technologies & Consumer Electronics -- told IFA that EU leadership was crucial to educating and “migrating users” toward digital and HDTV.
“Such leadership will drive investment and better technology,” Provoost said. “After all, technology is only successful if consumers adopt it. So regulators must play their part in enticing consumers to make the switch by giving clear guidance.” He said progress has been made within the EU because it’s finally heeding EICTA’s recommendations for a “more rapid switch-over” to DTV and a consumer education campaign on HDTV benefits.
There was much fanfare at IFA over plans by German pay-TV provider Premiere to launch coverage next year of all 64 matches in the World Cup. Philips said its desire to tie up promotionally with Premiere was by many of Premiere’s 3.5 million subscribers being early adopters heavily predisposed toward buying HD-ready flat TVs. But Premiere’s subscriber corps represents only 10% of German TV households.
In his keynote, Provoost said “urgent” action also is needed within the EU to undo the “patchwork” of more than 25 copyright protection systems: “The fragmentation is enormous, copyright levy systems are scattered, and the consequence of all this is market distortion, higher prices and the slower adoption of new technologies, which in some cases, forces manufacturers to shun markets altogether.” EICTA has called for a “freeze and adapt” policy on copyright levy systems throughout the EU, Provoost said. But “the irony is that nowadays, you don’t need any levies at all when DRM systems are in place to compensate rights holders for any legal private copies of their work.”