EC's Liikanen Talks About Content In The E-World

Content is crucial in the new electronic world, said Erkki Liikanen, the European Commission (EC) minister for Enterprise and the Information Society late Tuesday. Speaking at the fourth European Broadcasting Union (EBU) conference in Brussels, Belgium, Liikanen said that the content sector, including the public service broadcasters, has an important role to play in the world of broadcasting and multimedia. The EC minister said that updating the electronic communications legal framework within the European Union (EU), to take account of the convergence of technology, has become one of the crucial elements of community policy. It is, he said, a key foundation for the future European knowledge based society, but the EC needs to ensure that Europe has the infrastructure necessary to carry a wealth of broadly based content services, including broadcasting. Liikanen added that recent consultations, in particular the issue of a convergence green paper by the EC, clearly indicated what "having the right regulatory framework" would mean. Because of expectation that there will be multiple delivery channels for broadcasting, including the Internet, in the future, the EC minister said that there is a need establish a balance between liberalization in order to promote competition and innovation and, the possibilities for member states to pursue legitimate general interest objectives. Because of this, Liikanen said that there is definite need for associated facilities in the field of broadcasting. Liikanen added that the recently issued TV Standards Directive was the result of a difficult consultation on conditional access: how to balance competition, the need for investment to start the market, and the public interest.