News and Notes from BroadcastAsia2008 : 20 June 2008

EU anticipating closer ties, more joint projects with ASEAN

The European Union has much to share with its ASEAN counterparts when it comes to adopting a common digital broadcasting standard, says EU Commissioner.

The European Union (EU) looks forward to closer cooperation with its ASEAN counterparts in the audio-visual sector, said Ms Viviane Reding, the EU’s Commissioner for Information Society and Media.

Speaking at the Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting seminar held in Singapore on June 18, Ms Reding added that the EU is also committed to helping Asian countries realise the advantages of switching to digital broadcasting.

Asia and Europe, despite being distant geographically and distinct in mindsets, have one thing in common – cultural and linguistic diversity. As such, Ms Reding feels that learning can be derived from the EU experience with the 27 member states working well together to switch to Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) by 2012.

Drawing from her experience as Commissioner, she said Europe’s research community has changed from seeing “ivory towers with everyone reinventing the wheel in different corners”, to research laboratories, universities and businesses of all sizes working together on developing technology platforms including mobile and satellite.

“I believe in the exchange of best practices. …It’s a very efficient method that we’d like to share with members of ASEAN,” said Ms Reding, commending MDA for its efforts on conducting two DVD-H trials and holding an open consultation on mobile TV.

The benefits of DVB are many – efficient use of the spectrum with DVB’s compression algorithm, improved picture and sound quality, better mobile reception, as well as more radio and television channels – and consumers stand to enjoy them.

She noticed that Southeast Asian countries had been testing and deploying mobile TV, with Vietnam being one of the first countries in the world to deploy DVD-H service at the end of 2006.

She also pointed out that trials had been carried out in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. She praised the regulator in the Philippines for doing “a very good job”.

“The rich European and ASEAN content on our technology will be the future. I look forward to future agreements such as the EU-Asia Free Trade Agreement which will increasingly create and develop joint projects in the audio-visual sector,” she said.

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