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"We must forget about
everything we've learned," categorically remarks Ross Biggam,
General Director of Association of Commercial Television to Europe.
"We have to worry about our business environment," he said
in an interview with our magazine's Director Amanda Ospina in
Brussels, in the European Parliament's offices, where law enactments
for the 27 member states forming the European Union take place.
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Ross Biggam,
General Director at the Association of Commercial Television
to Europe (ACT), says that the biggest change is still
to come and it consists in a very complex story on how to
develop business. “The first thing is that broadcasters will
be given more flexibility in advertising within programs. We
used to have a rule for advertising every six minutes, and
that rule is being abolished next month, so there will be no
more restrictions.”
This situation will help make the offer more attractive to
some European markets and will facilitate content imports.
Another important thing is related to production and
distribution, whose sphere of activity will be enlarged.
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There will be
exemptions only as regards children contents. This law will not be
applied on movies either, because they are regulated in a different
way.
Adapting
to the new world
“The scene is much more
complex than it used to be,” assures Biggam, and “the biggest
change is still to come,” he declares. In his opinion, it will
happen on how to develop business.“Today we can give advertisers
access to 40% of the population every night of the week, every week
of the year; we can give them different options in different
countries and platforms, resorting to the government to get
licenses for cable, satellite, mobile telephony and Internet
contents, among other things,” explains ACT’s director.
“The significant changes will come through the technologies in
progress – the business will depend on them,” he states. However,
despite modifications in formats and supports, there is something
that stays unchanged – advertising is and will continue to be
the means of support of commercial television. “We’re living
in a fast paced world, but it’s new,” says Biggam and he
illustrates: “A very significant mobile TV network will be
developed in addition to the increase in TV stations and platforms
– users will get more and more power. All of these matters
interest us and they are the challenges to the European TV,”
assures ACT’s principal.
The large
blackout
When and how will this change
take place? The key date is 2012. That is when we will switch off
all our analogue televisions in Europe. There may be a delay in some
countries. However, England and Spain will be ready even sooner
– in 2010. Besides, scheduling is becoming less and less
relevant, as users can watch contents through VOD (video on demand).
To set up the future TV project, we will have to cross platforms.
“We’ll have to do business. TV stations will provide their
skills, phone companies will bring their knowledge and technology
and producers will have to adapt the formats. We all need to work
together
to shape the current TV, which seems to be in the early stages,”
explains Biggam.
Telenovelas
in Belgium
ACT’s director also told us his point of view on the Latin
American telenovelas penetration into the Belgian market. “I
think they will work fine in the French speaking part of Belgium. It
will be more difficult to place them in the Flander channels, which
have a stronger advertising market. So, if they bring topics of the
audience’s interest, no doubt they will make a big impact,” he
anticipates. Biggam refers to the fact that Belgium is
linguistically divided at the moment. It has two main language
groups: the Flanders, which represents 60% of Belgium’s population, are settled mainly in the Flanders region and speak Dutch, and
the French speaking population, which represents the other 40%.
Language division brings differences in the audiences’ tastes,
this makes Biggam be optimistic and consider that Belgium’s
market “is really complex but interesting at the same time.” |
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