Wide-screen TV Action Plan - Results of final call for proposals The European Commission has made the final allocations for funding under the European Union's Action Plan to promote wide-screen television services and programme production in the 16:9 format. The final call for proposals under the Action Plan, published in October 1996 (OJ N... The European Commission has made the final allocations for funding under the European Union's Action Plan to promote wide-screen television services and programme production in the 16:9 format. The final call for proposals under the Action Plan, published in October 1996 (OJ No S 190 of 1.10.1996 p. 31), attracted a high level of interest and competition was fierce. The Action Plan consists of two parts, one supporting broadcasters to transmit in the new format, and the other helping producers to make new programmes. As a result of this final call, eighteen broadcasters will receive ECU 7.8 million of funding for transmitting around 4,000 hours of wide-screen transmissions between now and the end of 1998. A further ECU 9.5 million will be made available under the call to 450 programme projects equivalent to 2,000 hours of wide-screen programming. In addition, the Commission allocated ECU 1.4 million towards the additional costs incurred by Television Radio Services '98 (TVRS'98) for producing and transmitting next year's World Cup football competition in France in wide-screen alongside the traditional 4/3 format. The funding will enable TVRS'98 - a consortium of French broadcasters responsible for organizing World Cup broadcast coverage - to offer wide-screen pictures to broadcasters all over Europe. From a broadcasting perspective, the main achievement of this call will be to propagate and consolidate wide-screen television's progress in "late starting markets". By the end of its implementation in December 1998, the Action Plan will have funded over 60,000 hours of wide-screen transmissions and 23,000 hours of new or remastered programmes. Major manufacturers now have full ranges of wide-screen sets in all sizes, to match all consumer budgets. European sales of wide-screen sets are doubling every year, 1.3 million forecast in 1997 alone. There has been a general migration in television programme production over to wide-screen, thereby ensuring that European programme catalogues - the assets on which this cultural industry is based - will maintain their value whatever the transmission standards used. Wide-screen programmes supported by the Action Plan, together with details of wide-screen versions of many other programmes, are being compiled into a database. "The Action Plan has been a clear success in the market", stated Mr. Martin Bangemann, Commissioner responsible for information technologies and telecommunication. Mr. Marcelino Oreja, Commissioner responsible for culture and audiovisual media, added that "It is very gratifying. We now can say that the wide-screen format is established in the market of most of the EU's Member States. We have total confidence that consumers, even without public funding of transmitting and programme production, will continue to embrace the wide-screen format in growing numbers." The Commission will produce a final report on the Action Plan following its completion in December 1998.
