New Television Database for EU to Launch at MIPTV

STRASBOURG, April 5: On
April 9, the European Commission (DG Communication) and the European
Audiovisual Observatory will launch at MIPTV the public version of MAVISE, a
free database set up to provide basic data on all the television channels
accessible in the European Union and the two candidate countries of Croatia and
Turkey.

To highlight the
database’s launch at MIPTV, the European Commission’s DG Communication and the
European Audiovisual Observatory are organizing a workshop entitled “Towards
Greater Transparency of the European Television Market.”

Starting April 9, MAVISE
can be accessed at mavise.obs.coe.int and via the Europa website at ec.europa.eu,
the portal of the Commission’s audiovisual service. For each country, the
MAVISE database contains a general description of the television landscape and
a list of sources of information, the names of the bodies that grant licenses
for television  channels or produce a
directory of existing channels, basic data on the population, the number of TV
households and the digital television penetration rate, a list of the channels
established in the country, a list of the channels received in the country, a
list of the operators (broadcasters and package providers)  and technical transmitters (analogue or
digital terrestrial, cable, satellite, IPTV or television to mobile).

For each broadcaster, the
database contains the contact details, the website address, the media group of
which the company is part, and a list of the channels broadcast. For each
television channel, the following information is provided: the name of the
broadcasting company, the channel’s concept and genre, the specific categories
of the public targeted by the channels, the countries targeted by the channel,
the number of hours broadcast, the access arrangements (free or subscription),
the availability, if any, of a high-definition version, any language versions available,
the availability, if any, of services for people with disabilities, the
availability, if any, of webcasting and catch-up
services, and the channels’ websites; in the case of local and regional
television channels, the type of license, and where available, the license
commencement and expiry dates, in each country where the channel is broadcast,
the names of the main technical distributors that provide the channel
(operators of  analogue and digital
terrestrial networks, cable operators, IPTV operators,  mobile television service operators), the
name(s) of the satellite(s) on which the channel is broadcast, the packages as
part of which the channel is available, the technical penetration (number of TV
households able to receive the channel).

For the channel package
operators and the main television channels distributors, the database also
provides a lineup of the channels broadcast.

The information suppliers
for the MAVISE database include Eurodata TV
Worldwide, Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing and Lyngemark. The database has been developed by the company
Easter Eggs, with project management assistance provided by Altran.

“The European Commission
needed a tool that would enable it to understand the world of television in all
its complexity,” said Thierry Vissol, an adviser to
the European Commission’s DG Communication. “The European Audiovisual
Observatory has developed a database for us that takes
this complexity into account. The public version of the MAVISE database that we
are presenting today only contains some of the information gathered by the
Observatory. In the context of intellectual property rights, it was not
possible to make information on the audiences and financial situation of
companies available to the public free of charge.”

“The MAVISE project, which will last five years, will enable the
Observatory to strengthen its expertise and services in the field of
television,” explained Wolfgang Closs, the executive
director of the European Audiovisual Observatory. “It is mainly a project
forming part of a service contract for the European Commission but we are
pleased that it will also result in an additional service, which we hope will
be useful for both professionals and the public at large.”

“MAVISE already contains
key information on more than 2,500 companies, over 2,700 television channels
and the line-up of more than a hundred distributors,” said André Lange, a head
of department at the Observatory. “The aim is to compile a list of the 6,000 to
7,000 channels in Europe by the end of the
year. In its present state, the database is far from being complete but the
most important channels in audience terms and the main special-interest
channels are included and the database is already proving very useful.”

—By Irene Lew