EU TV Switch Offers Valuable Lessons, Official Says
LONDON -- The digital TV switch is high on the European Commission political agenda and close attention is being paid to member countries’ progress, said Beatrice Covassi, head of policy development for the digital broadcasting sector of the Information Society and Media Directorate-General. Many countries will beat the planned 2012 cutoff by two years, she told us Tuesday at the European Switchover Strategies conference. Few nations have completed the transition, but the EC already has learned lessons, Covassi said.
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The EC is particularly interested in governments’ intentions to educate consumers and help vulnerable groups make the change, said Covassi. She praised the U.K. switchover of the Whitehaven area near the Lake District for the emphasis on helping older and disadvantaged viewers. The EC also is impressed by the federal efforts in the U.S., she said.
Switchover lessons for the EC include the need to keep subsidies to consumers from violating bans on state aid, Covassi said, emphasizing the importance of concrete plans and buy-in from everyone affected.
A major conundrum is the fate of spectrum freed in the shift, Covassi said. Most EC member governments agree they need to coordinate on spectrum issues in order to spur competition, but spectrum is a “very sensitive area” and opinions clash on its best use, she said. A November communique began the EC debate on the matter, the first time the body has floated a plan for radio spectrum use, and the Slovenian Presidency wants to move it forward, she said. The EC hopes for preliminary agreement this year, she said.
Broadcasters’ Perspectives
The “best way to do the switch-off is to do the switch- off,” said Alberto Sigismondi, Mediaset director of content and R&D for DTT. Mediaset has been switching parts of Sardinia since last year, he said. Completion was set for March, but the recent collapse of Italy’s government could scotch those plans, he said. Broadcasters need good planning and secure dates, Sigismondi said.
French broadcasters worry about cost and audience, said TF1 Technology Development Manager Sylvain Audigier. Having DTT in one-fifth of French households has cost broadcasters about 10 percent of their audience the past year, he said. Broadcasters must reach wider audiences through costly investments in new market entrants, he said.
Broadcasters should get behind the switch, which happen sooner than later, some players said. Broadcasters “will have to live with it,” Audigier said. The switchover in France is set for November 2011, a deadline that broadcasters want to move up to eliminate the cost of carrying analog programs in addition to digital ones, he said. But the 2011 date hits around the time of the next presidential election, perhaps slowing progress, he said. Further complications could arise from decisions on the digital spectrum dividend, he said.
The entire media industry faces digital migration but no one has figured out how to exploit it, Sigismondi said. Broadcasters should urge quick adoption to make money and create new platforms to enable new business models, he said. A sound, robust platform needs more than a low-cost set-top box, he said. Broadcasters who want to profit from digital switchover must have platforms that are as cheap as possible but that support new services, he said.
The Importance of Being Earnest
Making viewers familiar the switch is a large part of the battle, speakers said. Properly informed viewers will get on with it, said Simon Crine, director of corporate affairs for Digital UK (DUK), which is running the process. The DUK learned in the Whitehaven switchover that awareness campaigns make sense and that it’s crucial to work with groups representing the elderly and other vulnerable users, he said. “Be open” with viewers, he said.
Excessively expensive set-top boxes didn’t appear in Whitehaven, Crine said. Many Britons are keen to upgrade TVs and retailers behaved with “great integrity,” he said. But the DUK expects problems when the rest of the country moves to digital TV, he said.
Consumers resistant to change pose a challenge, said speakers. Some Germans, confusing DTV and pay-per-view, refused to change to a service they thought would cost more, said Johanna Fell, European representative to the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for Commercial Broadcasting. The DUK also had to clarify that DTV is free, Crine said. He urged countries starting the process to reach out to all viewers, including those fighting switchover. The conference continues Wednesday.