Many in Euro TV biz embrace EP standard
Parliament strikes balance between consumer interests, investments
In an amendment to the development of digital TV, the Parliament said it has struck a balance between consumer interests and investments already made, with the goal of a technologically neutral open system.
It asked the European Commission to ensure rapid adoption of the multimedia home platform (MHP) as the single European standard.
Fave standard
MHP is favored by Germany's pubcasters and commercial webs, Scandinavian stations and the European electronics manufacturer federation Eacem. Their common interest group, Alliance for Interoperable TV, noted that MHP is not yet mandatory. But "nobody should assume he can dodge this standard," said ZDF topper Dieter Stolte.
Decision to back MHP will peeve Liberty Media, which plans to distribute its own set-top boxes free of charge to customers if it takes over Deutsche Telekom's cable systems. It had argued that MHP was too expensive and couldn't be introduced in time.
According to the alliance, MHP can be installed by the second half of 2002 for only around $13 for existing decoders.
"New digital TV platforms as planned by Liberty Media will have to be MHP-compatible from the outset," said ARD topper Fritz Pleitgen.
