Towards an EU content online policy

Yesterday, I put up the press release on the European Charter for Film Online integrally without comment. Intriguing was the last paragraph: For the Commission, the European Film Online Charter is also seen as the first step towards developing a broader Content Online policy for the European Union. The Commission will present a Communication on this subject in autumn 2006.

So the Commission and especially the department of Viviane Reding is working on a broader content online policy. This sounds good. Ms Reding is really on the ball. For the policy so far has been very text oriented with the radio and television (RTV world and movieworld being worlds far apart and treated apart in terms of polic statements, measures and project calls. I look forward to the communication the Commission is going to publish about this in autumn 2006.

Of course it had to come some day that content online is not only text-orineted and on internet. With internet radio stations, with digital TV rapidly being sold as part of triple play and with movies on demand as a dream come true, at last, the whole environment of content online is changing fast.

Yesterday I visited at the Dutch company Ilse, part of the Dutch division of the Sanoma Group. This company that started as a search engiune company has now built up a long tail of other services. It also has a special section for the youth. This is not just a internet publisher, It is an integrated publisher serving internet, but also busy with digital radio and televison. The company has of course an editorial and internet staff, but also a market research office and a marketing office. They have there own services like Kaboem, but also work for third parties such as the book shop retailer Bruna.

So in practice you see the convergence finally coming; a content online policy is definitely needed.

Today it is a holiday in the Netherlands. Last night all the highways were jammed with traffic as the Dutch went on a long weekend. It is Ascension Day, a relic of the Roman Catholic Church. Of course it is nice to have a holiday, but it is ridiculous, if you see that the RC Catholics do not practice anymore except for weddings and funerals and the Netherlands have many protestants, muslems and other believers. So we should abolish this holiday and get more efficient about holidays. For many Dutch people, except for them working in retail, take or have to take an extra day off.

Tags: EU, content

Blog Posting Number 387