BRUSSELS -- A senior European Union official has said Brussels will impose a common technical standard for interactive digital TV on the broadcasting industry if companies fail to come up with one of their own. The deadline for them to do so, according to EU legislation, is July 2004.
The possibility of the move, raised by Fabio Colasanti at a meeting of European Parliament members and industry reps, echoes similar threats from U.S. legislators to impose technology on local TV companies if they do not develop a common standard.
The EU would like to see a single digital broadcasting standard used across Europe, so that one set-top box could be used to access interactive digital TV. Commissioner Erkki Liikanen recently said the EU would launch a consultation on how to achieve this during 2003.
As things stand, however, European broadcasters have developed systems that do not work with each other, meaning viewers cannot receive many of the broadcasts offered by competing TV operations.
The EU is worried that this is seriously slowing down the growth of digital TV and believes using a common standard will kickstart the market.
Imposing a common standard, however, would create huge problems for broadcasters, who have already spent millions on their own technology. Many claim that using a common standard, such as the Multimedia Home Platform favored by the EU, would be very expensive. As this cost would have to be passed on to the consumer, it would not help to persuade viewers to subscribe to digital TV.
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