Use of standards for the transmission of television signals (repeal. Directive 92/38/EEC)

The common position incorporated four amendments which had been accepted by the Commission in its amended proposal. These primarily related to the following measures: - the introduction of a reference to the Directive on "television without frontiers"; - the inclusion of the term "advanced" to qualify the "television services"; - the need to adopt common standards for the digital transmission of TV signals and to mandate a recognized European standardization body to carry this out; - conditional access. In addition the Council introduced amendments which sought: - to clarify the minimum requirements in respect of wide-screen services; - to underline the importance of broadcasting networks for advanced television services; - to specify that cable TV systems do not come under the scope of the Directive; - to stress that standards would be required in good time before the introduction to the market of digital television services; - to specify that advanced television services also included those using digital transmission systems; - to specify the scope of the standardization requirement by indicating the elements which comprise a transmission system; - to make reference to the "administered" rather than the "standardized" scrambling algorithm and to withdraw the reference to "inclusion in the television receivers" as far as conditional access was concerned; - to require that broadcasting systems should at least use the 16:9 aspect ratio for those services which were picked up in this format, without necessarily excluding their re-transmission in other formats; - to set a time limit of 9 months for the implementation of the provisions contained in the Directive. �