Commission highlights opportunities of convergence and globalisation in content market
The European Commission has urged Europe's creative industries to view the increased convergence and globalisation of the market for content as an opportunity, rather than a threat, and set out its measures to help the industry compete in a global market. Speaking at an Austrian Presidency seminar on 'Content for competitiveness' in Vienna on 2 March, Rudolf Strohmeier, Head of Cabinet for Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding, said that the rapid convergence of broadband networks, audiovisual media and electronic devices will create new opportunities in the ICT (information and communication technologies) and content sectors. 'Another major change that convergence is bringing about is the globalisation of the content market,' added Mr Strohmeier. 'As a consequence, worldwide competition for distribution of content increases and the challenges faced by European creative industries are global in nature.' The EU's response to these trends comes in the form of the Commission's i2010 initiative, which calls for the creation of a single 'information space' to provide a sound basis for Europe's content and creative industries to compete in a global market. A number of specific measures are being proposed within the overall initiative, which Mr Strohmeier outlined at the seminar. Firstly, the Television Without Frontiers Directive aims to create a single framework for all types of TV services, irrespective of the technology used to transmit or receive them. This will provide 'the legal certainty necessary for the new audiovisual service providers to offer their services on a pan-European basis,' said Mr Strohmeier. It is hard to envisage a strong content industry without sufficient protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), but in this area Europe, with its 25 different IPR regimes, has a competitive disadvantage. 'If in the longer term we want European content and creative industries to be able to compete on a global scale [...] we may start calling into question the territoriality of copyright protection in Europe,' Mr Strohmeier believes. The Film Online initiative, launched at the last Cannes Film Festival, aims to develop a single European approach in the take up of film online, and represents a first step towards a new approach for all online content. Another step towards this goal will be taken with the adoption of a communication on 'Content online' at the end of 2006. The Digital Libraries initiative, another element of i2010, aims to make Europe's cultural heritage freely available, searchable and useable to citizens. This is important not only from a cultural perspective, according to Mr Strohmeier, but also economically, as such resources provide the inspiration for new forms of content. The European content and creative industries should not see the changes brought about by convergence and globalisation as a threat,' concluded Mr Strohmeier. 'We believe that the combined efforts of the industry, the Member States and the Commission, in making the most of convergence, will lead to the creation of a truly dynamic home market for content in Europe.'
Countries
Austria