VIA SATELLITE: Do you feel all the necessary regulation are in place satellite players to play a role in this market?
REDING: Yes, as I described above, a single market — not 27 — now exists for these services. Henceforth, the ball is in the camp of the industry, and I expect intense competition among operators offering satellite-based communication services. Depending on the number of candidates, the Commission expects that the selection procedure can be completed in the first months of 2009. First satellite launches could take place already in 2009, but the deadline for the deployment of commercial services is 2011 at the latest. This said, we have no specific plans for regulating satellite TV, technological neutrality being our preferred approach.
VIA SATELLITE: Do hybrid delivery infrastructures present any unique regulatory challenges?
REDING: Combining different networks to deliver a homogeneous service which covers a large geographic area perfectly reflects the cost dynamics and rollout patterns of the underlying broadcast network infrastructures. Each time new players enter into the telecoms arena competition is increased and so is consumer choice. Creative combinations of different infrastructures pose no problem from the perspective of content regulation.
What one does have to take into account, however, is technology neutrality — this being one of the backbones of the EU’s new Audiovisual Media Services Directive and of our regulator framework for the telecoms sector. Generally speaking, the models which are being developed have the potential to benefit European citizens.
Whether and which individual offers succeed or fail will be a market decision.
VIA SATELLITE: Do you see satellite technology playing a role in reducing the digital divide in Europe?
REDING: Mobile satellite services have the tremendous advantage of being able to cover most of the EU’s territory, thereby reaching millions of EU citizens across borders. A lot of remote rural areas will have access to high-speed Internet and other services that they previously could not access via ground-based networks. Opening areas up to services that were once considered too expensive to reach should energize local economies and could indeed help to close the digital divide. As such, they represent an unprecedented opportunity for all Europeans to access new communication services. That is also why geographical coverage and the range of services to consumers in rural or remote areas are among the criteria that will be assessed in the selection process. It is obviously in the operator’s interest to reach as many potential customers as possible by serving an area as wide as possible.
VIA SATELLITE: As the way content is consumed becomes more fragmented, is regulating the market more difficult?
REDING: I see a huge potential for new services such as IP, mobile and high-definition media. At the same time there is great confidence of viewers in TV, radio and other established media as they know them. These two trends are not contradictory but will come together and allow market players to contribute to growth and employment in the media industry. There is also a challenge for content providers to maintain their revenues as mass audiences become more and more fragmented. While they need to experiment with imaginative offers on new platforms, they also need to make sure that they keep offering high-quality content.
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