euro news_news 21/05/2015 18:34 Page 1
he European
Commission has
unveiled its detailed
plans to create a Digital
Single Market, thereby
delivering on one of its top
priorities in recognition of
the need to embrace the
digital revolution and open
up digital opportunities for
people and businesses.
Commission President JeanClaude Juncker (right) said:
“Today, we lay the groundwork
for Europe’s digital future. I want
to see pan-continental telecoms
networks, digital services that
cross borders and a wave of
innovative European start-ups. I
want to see every consumer
getting the best deals and every
business accessing the widest
market – wherever they are in
Europe. Exactly a year ago, I
promised to make a fully Digital
Single Market one of my top
priorities. Today, we are making
good on that promise. The 16
steps of our Digital Single Market
Strategy will help make the Single
Market fit for a digital age.”
Vice-President for the Digital
Single Market Andrus Ansip
added: “Our Strategy is an
ambitious and necessary
programme of initiatives that
target areas where the EU can
make a real difference. They
prepare Europe to reap the
benefits of a digital future. They
will give people and companies
the online freedoms to profit fully
from Europe’s huge internal
market. The initiatives are interlinked and reinforce each other.
They must be delivered quickly to
better help to create jobs and
growth. The Strategy is our
starting point, not the finishing
line.”
Commissioner for the Digital
Economy and Society Günther H.
Oettinger said: “Our economies
and societies are going digital.
Future prosperity will depend
largely on how well we master
this transition. Europe has
strengths to build on, but also
homework to do, in particular to
make sure its industries adapt,
T
6 EUROMEDIA
EC unveils Digital
Single Market plans
and its citizens make full use of
the potential of new digital
services and goods. We have to
prepare for a modern society and
will table proposals
balancing the
interests of
consumers and
industry.”
Among the
proposals is a
modern, more
European copyright
law: legislative
proposals will
follow before the
end of 2015 to
reduce the
differences between
national copyright
regimes and allow
for wider online access to works
across the EU, including through
further harmonisation measures.
The aim is to improve people’s
access to cultural content online –
thereby nurturing cultural
diversity – while opening new
opportunities for creators and the
content industry. In particular,
the Commission wants to ensure
that users who buy films, music
or articles at home can also enjoy
them while travelling across
Europe. The Commission will also
look at the role of online
intermediaries in relation to
an “ambitious” overhaul of EU
telecoms rules. This includes more
effective spectrum coordination,
and common EU-wide criteria for
spectrum assignment
at national level;
creating incentives for
investment in highspeed broadband;
ensuring a level
playing field for all
market players,
traditional and new;
and creating an
effective institutional
framework.
It will also review
the audiovisual media
framework to make it
fit for the 21st century,
focusing on the roles of
the different market players in the
promotion of European works (TV
broadcasters, on-demand
audiovisual service providers,
etc.). It will as well look at how to
adapt existing rules (the
Audiovisual Media Services
Directive) to new business models
for content distribution. It will
also look into how to best tackle
illegal content on the Internet.
The European Broadcasting
Union (EBU) has welcomed the
European Commission’s strategy
to create a Digital Single Market
(DSM) between European Union
member states.
For EBU director general
Ingrid Deltenre, the recognition of
digital content as a key factor for a
Digital Single Market is crucial,
reflecting the dynamic
relationship between content and
networks: “Citizens must be able
to access content services on an
affordable, universal and nondiscriminatory basis. Audio-visual
and content services should drive
demand and digital innovation,
nourish the EU’s cultural and
creative industries and, in turn,
build audiences for high quality
and original programming,” she
declared.
“Today, we lay the groundwork
for Europe’s digital future.”
Digital Single Market
will strengthen big
players
The proposed introduction
of a Digital Single Market
for Europe could see a
move towards panEuropean media players
bringing scale to the
negotiating table when
buying programming
rights, according to Martyn
Whistler, EY’s lead media
and entertainment analyst.
“We know audiences want
to access their content
wherever and whenever they
want. Being constrained by
national borders is
copyright-protected work. It will
step up enforcement against
commercial-scale infringements
of intellectual property rights.
There will also be a review of the
S