Digital television: use of standards for the transmission of signals

The European Parliament adopted the resolution drafted by Astrid THORS (ELDR, Finland) on the Commission's communication on digital television in the European Union. Parliament urged as a fundamental principle open access for digital TV, similar to the open network provision in the telecom sector ensuring that decoders for digital TV are in future regarded as part of the information infrastructure. Parliament also considered that interoperability can be achieved through different approaches to standards, either making them open and mandatory or installing a system where the proprietary standards are subject to licensing; whilst the present Directive opted for two different techniques, the simulcrypt technique and common interfaces, in the future, it is advisable under certain conditions that national authorities are mandated to impose the application of open standards adopted by European standardisation authorities.�