Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, talked about the importance of cooperation in the electronic communication market. “It is not possible anymore to think in the pure terms of audiovisual and telecom, they are now embedded”. She raised the point that audiovisual services do not have the same economy as telecom services, and she wants to promote dialogue between the two sectors. She is convinced that this would lead to a win-win situation. However, she said that it stays in the hands of the Member States (MSs) to define the mission of public service broadcasters.

Further, Mrs. Reding said that there are many possibilities of added value for media and telecom but the services depend on spectrum availability. The digital dividend is therefore of essential importance because it will allow more spectrum to be released. She says “I do not want to auction these frequencies used by broadcasters; to provide services of common interest. Because I do not want to sell off cultural diversity which is the real richness of our continent”.

Mrs. Reding wanted a debate about how to develop new and already existing services, and how to better use the dividend. “It is necessary to look at the available frequencies and see what services should be applied for social, cultural and economic benefit”. One of her points is that services need to develop in the interest of the citizens and of the industry.

Mrs Reding pointed out that “frequencies of quality are scarce and someone will need to decide on them. Decisions on frequencies need to be transparent, take into account all dimensions and not only economic interest”. The use of spectrum should be flexible and efficient. It should not be done on the expense of juridical security or the National Regulatory Authorities’ competences, Mrs Reding explained.

She called for close work at the European level. She also suggested “some degree of harmonisation and evolution towards common objectives and common instruments”.

Mrs Reding who has been clear on her position about Mobile TV said that it is time to act, to provide legal certainty and allocate frequencies in this area. She called for consensus on a European standard, in this case DVB-H.

A debate should also be about the place of HDTV on the terrestrial free to air platform. She said that it is important to set up priorities before giving spectrum to HDTV.

Viviane Reding finished by calling for a New Deal on Spectrum management.

Next steps:
Launch of the draft Telecom Package, November 13th, 2007
Communication on Content Online, by the end of this year

To read the speech, please click here