Cable networks and local television stations: their importance for Greater Europe
Doc. 6977
15 December 1993REPORT
Rapporteur: Mr BARTODZIEJ, Poland, Group of the European People's Party
Summary
Cable networks represent a considerable market in the countries of central and eastern Europe, where they are based on a technological design comparable to that in the west. The diversity of their programmes, especially news programmes, and the fact that they can be interconnected, not only domestically but also internationally, make them efficient instruments for developing the new democracies. Their management structures are increasingly moving towards full privatisation, and they usually become financially viable within a short time.
To allow the countries of central and eastern Europe to make up their leeway in producing and building equipment and making programmes, technology transfers should be encouraged and a training body set up for professionals with a view to exchanging any experience already gained. The allocation of television channels to further education and vocational training programmes would undoubtedly be an important and indeed viable outlet.
I. Draft recommendation
1. The Parliamentary Assembly notes that the development of cable networks, satellite broadcasts and local television stations can foster democracy in the countries of central and eastern Europe.
2. It further observes the development under way in other countries, particularly in the United States, where closer links are being established among telephone and information companies and cable operators.
3. Having examined the situation of cable networks in Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly observes that their level of development differs from one country to another. Each country has its own problems, particularly on the technical front but also in respect of legislation and management. Awareness of the importance of the technological, industrial, economic and cultural issues involved is necessary for the protection of European interests.
4. The Assembly has regard in this context to:
i. its Recommendation 1098 (1989) on east-west audiovisual co-operation,
ii. its Recommendation 1110 (1989) on distance teaching,
iii. its Resolution 937 (1990) on telecommunications: the implications for Europe,
iv. its Resolution 957 (1991) on the situation of local radio in Europe,
v. its Recommendation 1147 (1991) on parliamentary responsibility for the democratic reform of broadcasting,
and also to:
vi. the European Convention on Transfrontier Television (of 5 May 1989),
vii. and Resolution 253 (1993) on the regional dimension of the European audiovisual area of the Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE),
5. The Assembly considers that the creation of the European Audiovisual Observatory — now a reality, as proposed by the Committee of Ministers in Resolution (92) 70, to collect data on the various forms of communication, is an important step, since availability of legal, economic and programme-related information to professional circles will ensure a more open market.
6. The Assembly therefore requests the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to invite the Steering Committee on the Mass Media (CDMM):
i. to carry out a survey of cable networks and local television stations in the countries of central and eastern Europe whose findings should assist in:
a. backing the efforts of cable networks and local television stations in central and eastern Europe through the provision of production and post-production material in exchange for programmes;
b. developing technological exchanges;
ii. to examine ways of encouraging public service broadcasters in central and east European countries to be attentive to the advantages to be gained from cable and other technologies;
iii. to work out proposals as to how the west European countries, in particular public broadcasters in the latter, can be encouraged to help public broadcasters in the central and east European countries to equip themselves with these new technologies;
iv. to set up its own special structure with the following terms of reference:
a. helping the countries of central and eastern Europe to frame their national legislation on copyright and neighbouring rights, considering that the introduction in each country of structures for collecting and distributing the royalties accruing from these rights would boost the creation of national or local productions and develop employment in this sector;
b. ensuring that national legislation embodies protection of certain individual rights and compliance with programming standards, particularly in respect of advertising and identification of sponsors;
v. to step up its training programmes for professionals in the fields of management, programming, production, technology and ethics of journalism, particularly by means of courses and seminars in western Europe on such subjects as exchanges of technology and programmes and organisation of co-productions (on the Eurimages model);
7. The Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
i. speed up its work as regards the opening for signature of the draft European Convention relating to questions of copyright law and neighbouring rights;
ii. examine the specific problems of local and regional television services in central and eastern Europe as key elements in the strengthening of democracy. The proposal in CLRAE Resolution 253 for establishing an "observatory or network of regional television services" should be considered in the framework of the European Audiovisual Observatory which has been operating since 1 August 1993.
8. It also requests the Committee of Ministers to invite the governments of member states:
i. to support the audiovisual products of the countries of central and eastern Europe by making a set of concrete proposals concerning the purchase of rights and the copying and dubbing of audiovisual products and by upholding the principle of lowering the cost of communication and broadcasting by satellite;
ii. to facilitate the use of cable networks as an ideal vehicle and a natural extension of education and vocational training whose economic viability could be secured with only a limited number of viewers. A list of training products might be included in an international catalogue;
iii. to promote the creation of integrated television, communications and information structures in order to ensure that the facilities provided achieve immediate profitability and to avoid the creation of parallel networks;
iv. to invest in the production of advanced technologies, such as digital systems and optical fibre cables.
II. Explanatory memorandum[1]
by Mr BARTODZIEJ
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Technology and problems related to cable networks and local television stations
Technology of cable networks
Equipment of cable networks and local television stations
Programmes
Copyright and broadcasting rights
Status of networks
Staff training3. Education and training through cable networks
Basic education
Higher education
Vocational training
Further education4. Reception of satellite signals by individual dish aerials
5. Development of digital techniques
6. The issues involved
7. Conclusions
1. Introduction
The political changes in the countries of eastern Europe have triggered off far-reaching developments in the field of communication and especially telecommunications, including the proliferation of cable networks and private television stations.
Both legal and illegal means have been used for this purpose, particularly in the case of programmes based on video films and the reception of satellite broadcasts. In view of the rapid development of this equipment even when links with the West were few and far between, it may be supposed that techniques of a novel kind were used.
In eastern European countries, apart from a few exceptions, it is private companies that finance and manage cable networks. So far, cable network management has proved very profitable. On average, two years' functioning is enough to ensure a refund on investment.
When beginning to operate cable networks, these companies usually secure their financial situation by engaging in related commercial activities, such as the hiring of video cassettes, the repairing of audiovisuel equipment, and the installations of aerials.
Come even provide cable networks for other operators.
If the management companies also own a local television station, they can sell advertising time and produce commercials. Furthermore, many cable operators run radio stations or newspapers, thus building up small communication groups.
2. Technology and problems related to cable networks and local television stations
Technology of cable networks
This involves conveying television signals by a cable from the head station to the subscriber.
Cable networks were first of all used for covering areas not reached by hertzian-wave television, then for transmitting a large number of television channels - formerly fifteen, now 100.
The classic lay-out of a cable network comprises:
a. A head station which receives hertzian, satellite or video signals (from a local studio).
Satellite signals must be remodulated so that they can be received by television sets.
b. A "primary" transport line consisting of a cable, boosters and shunters.
c. Distribution lines which link the secondary lines to subscribers, composed of finer copper cables with commercial or individual "shunters".
d. Subscriber terminals. Some networks are equipped with a "return track" allowing signals to be sent back to the head station from the subscriber. Subscribers sending a signal can be identified. For these signals to be processed, a terminal permitting such a communication must be installed.
The cable used for networks was initially made of copper (coaxial cable) and later of optical fibre.
As a loss of signal strength occurs, especially along coaxial networks, boosters must be placed along the cable at regular intervals; these are active elements.
Optical fibre transmits light signals.
The television signals received by the head station therefore have to be converted into light signals, then converted back into a television signal that television sets can comprehend; this may be done either somewhere along the network or on the subscriber's premises.
The great advantage of optical fibre is its capacity to transmit hundreds of programmes with little loss of signal strength. This obviates the need to install boosters along tens of kilometres of cable.
The cable used is mostly coaxial, but optical fibre is also used in both parts of Europe, especially for the primary section of networks in large cities. Some networks even use it right up to people's homes.
Cable networks are virtually interconnectable, not only nationally but also internationally. Eastern and western networks could therefore be connected together, as the equipment used is identical in design.
Equipment of cable networks and local televisions stations
In eastern European countries, equipment is of local design and manufacture.
The parallel between eastern and western firms is striking. In the west it was civilian companies that began making the equipment, but manufacturers of military equipment are now starting to take an interest in this market for the purposes of diversification. In the east — especially in the former Soviet Union — this has been going on for almost three years and, in the case of the earliest networks, for as long as five years.
Locally manufactured equipment is also used for local hertzian-wave television and for satellite reception.
In all local television stations, however, whether hertzian-wave or cable, the production and post-production equipment is made abroad, mostly in Japan, and is relatively expensive. In Russia, for example, a VHS camcorder costs as much as a cable network head serving 20 000 subscribers.
All amplification and distribution equipment is also locally produced.
At a guess, the west is no more than five years ahead of the east in technical terms. This difference can be made up either locally (there are many research institutes working in this field in the former Soviet Union) or through organised co-operation with European firms, which could expedite the technological catching-up process and hence narrow the gap.
Some armaments production companies are currently turning their production over to cable network material as one option for new product lines.
This highly significant trend could set a pattern for the slow but sure conversion of part of the CIS's arms industry complex.
Programmes
Local television channels broadcast several types of programme.
First of all, there is news. This is generally seen as independent. It already has a history behind it, as in Romania and particularly in the USSR, it has played a very important part in the democratisation process.
Domestic output varies from network to network, but is generally low for financial reasons. Some cable networks, however, do broadcast more than four to five hours of original material every day.
Foreign programmes are broadcast by local stations either as part of their own schedules or on a separate channel, but they are very often pirated in any case. Most programmes are translated.
Next, wide use is made of satellites, either those of the CIS or western ones. The CIS's satellites serve to duplicate the retransmitters' hertzian-wave network and rebroadcast two or three channels (Ostankino, the Russian channel and St. Petersburg television).
Most networks broadcast western programmes in one of two ways: either by putting together news bulletins from extracts of several channels' material or by alternating the transmission of their own material with that other channels' material.
In the southern part of the former Soviet Union, Turkish and Iranian programmes are also used. These are either broadcast in the original language or dubbed/sub-titled.
Copyright and broadcasting rights
Local television stations and cable networks use large quantities of video cassettes from the west. Most of them are bootleg copies which local television channels screen, dubbed or otherwise, without paying copyright fees to anyone.
Programmes broadcast by western satellites are usually retransmitted without the producers' permission and hence without any payment of broadcasting rights.
It is desirable to find solutions to this illegal situation, while proposing financial measures which, at least for a transitional period, are not so severe as to put local television stations out of business or disrupt their harmonious development. As for national television stations, agreements are now being signed, but help will be needed for their application.
The rights problem can have adverse side-effects: for example, it is contributing to the disappearance of the cinema mostly of the former Soviet Union and other central and east European countries. Now that local and even national broadcasters are using pirated cassettes and programmes, they no longer commission films or television series from production companies, which are consequently closing down one after the other. An American film in the original version costs ten times in Russia than a translated version. Therefore, it is obviously cheaper to buy bootleg programmes.
The payment of rights might be introduced gradually: they would be paid for first in local currency, then gradually increased to reach western levels after a certain period.
One approach might be to set up programme exchanges on a swap basis, especially with voluntary or commercial local channels which hold the rights in their own programmes, with no money changing hands. This arrangement could take the form of a "programme market" based on an exhaustive catalogue.
Another approach might be to assist the setting up of a marketing network in the west for professional products from eastern Europe. This would provide east European programme makers with the hard currency they desperately need for buying equipment not manufactured in their own country, such as production or post-production equipment.
Status of networks
The legal and financial status of these networks varies widely, in both eastern and western Europe. In the east, there are both legal and illegal networks, but the latter (both cable and hertzian-wave) are tending to regularise their situation.
These networks are governed by municipal, private, commercial or voluntary structures.
Different types of management could be proposed in this field.
Staff training
An important area where western help may be useful is training.
The training could cover various fields: management, programming, production, technology, picture and sound, etc. It could take various forms: training courses for east Europeans on the spot or in western Europe or training attachements with cable networks or local television stations corresponding to the type and needs of the trainees' structures of origin.
An international body might be established for the purpose of organising such training. It would draw on the expertise of each country so as to ensure a sound knowledge of existing training arrangements and provide judicious guidance for would-be trainees. It could also facilitate trainees' and teachers' travel.
3. Education and training through cable networks
Given the large numbers of channels available in each cable network, such networks are ideal tools for broadcasting educational programmes.
As cable networks serve residential areas, school facilities there could be linked up to the networks at little cost.
Cable networks can be used for programming one or more channels for the purposes of:
basic education,,
higher education,
vocational training, and
further education.
Basic education
At this level, cable networks can be used to supplement children's classroom education.
This tool offers easy access to educational audiovisual documents, thus obviating the need for copying. All teachers could therefore be provided with tailor-made material for their classes.
It is also an irreplaceable instrument for children who have to stay at home or are confined to a medical establishment. Specially adapted lessons can be broadcast to them, and the technology used on certain two-way networks can even put them in audiovisual communication with their class, an important psychological factor that prevents children from feeling cut off from their social environment.
Higher education
In this field, two uses may be considered for cable networks.
a. Broadcasting of lectures, material and experiments to large numbers of students at home.
This would permit savings of space and time (less time spent in moving from place to place); it would also save money, as students would have to do only practical work on the university premises.
b. Exchanges of course material between universities and the creation of image data banks which would enable all universities to be supplied from the cable network head station.
These head stations could either be provided with video cassettes or make direct use of the newly emerging educational satellites, thus enabling programmes to be exchanged with other universities.
Such exchanges can thus take place both nationally and internationally.
Vocational training
As pictures are an expressive educational medium, it is possible to envisage the creation of audiovisual banks in this field.
These could comprise lectures and practical work serving to complement theoretical training or practical lessons dispensed in situ.
Pictures of the various trades, demonstrating the application of theory, could be useful for training in a professional context.
Video links between apprentices' companies and schools could allow a whole class to benefit from everyone's experience.
Further education
In this field, the use of cable networks is probably the best way of interesting people who are usually unenthusiastic and thus provide further education in optimum conditions either at home or at the workplace.
Craft trades might be primarily concerned, as their members often work alone and can rarely leave their workplaces.
By virtue of their nature, cable networks tend to be installed in residential areas, which is where workshops are often situated. Failing that, craftsmen could also receive cable programmes at home.
Educational programmes repeated at various suitable times, provide convenient refresher training.
Other types of businesses might also be interested, such as banks, insurance companies, shops and distribution companies, as they tend to be situated in towns and could make use of cable networks to offer their staff further training at their workplace.
The main reason for using cable networks is the current or anticipated availability of a large number of channels.
One or more channels on each network could be set aside for educational purposes.
The communication instrument of cable networks is the head station, which can either broadcast video cassettes or receive and broadcast satellite programmes.
This use of cable networks can also perform a social function by offering cost-effective education together with the possibility of exchanging training products within a given country or with the rest of the world, bearing in mind the falling cost of satellite broadcasting. This exchange would open up education systems to others, thereby gradually bringing about a mutual enhancement of knowledge and accustoming children, students and workers to discovering, using and comparing other people's ideas. This might help to improve the positive perception of the value of European development.
4. Reception of satellite signals by individual dish aerials
There are two kinds of satellite reception equipment:
fixed equipment, adapted to and directed at a single satellite, or several closely grouped satellites) whose price in Europe varies between 2 500 FF and 5 000 FF, depending on how sophisticated it is. With such equipment the various satellite channels (4-16 currently in Europe) can be received.
mobile equipment which, by means of a gyroscopic system, allows channels on different satellites to be received. This costs between 10 000 FF and 25 000 FF.
However, whichever type of equipment is used, only one programme can be received at a time. This reduces the number of users to one; regardless of the number of television sets in a given household, they will all receive the same programme if they are linked to the same satellite dish.
To remedy this problem, modulators and demodulators can be added, but that turns the system into a collective antenna or a mini-cable network.
Dish aerial reception is therefore intended first and foremost for individual reception in rural areas or in towns where it is not planned to install a cable network or where cabling is advancing but slowly.
These products will become widespread because they are cheap and easy to use. However, although they are cheap, their cost still amounts to fifteen to thirty months' cable network subscription.
Moreover, the equipment is likely to be obsolate in three to five years' time, either because it is worn out or because it is no longer suited to the current type of satellite broadcasting and therefore needs to be replaced.
It is therefore foreseeable that for another five to ten years satellite television programmes in built-up areas will continue to be received by cable as, in any case, it is cheaper than individual reception by dish aerial.
There is also a coding problem, as codes may differ from one satellite to another. Moreover, there are at present several incompatible systems. If viewers subscribe to more than one service, they will therefore need more than one decoder.
In any event, this will considerably increase the cost of individual reception.
5. Development of digital techniques
The rapid spread of microprocessors in all technical fields, especially in the computer sector, is resulting in the development of digital communication technologies. Sounds, pictures and letters are transformed into sequences of 2 digits, 0 and 1, transmitted by electric or light impulses. The use of impulses instead of continuously modulated electric current or light facilitates the parallel transmission of several communications, reduces the risk of disturbance and error and permits memorisation and conversion with the help of computer technology (microprocessors, memories).
At present, there are several applications of digital techniques in the field of sound, picture and text transmission:
i. recording and conversion (or synthesising) of sound (compact disk — CD — and digital cassette — DAT — technology, and technology for the digital transmission of sound, as well as by satellite);
ii. integrated communication digital networks (stationary or mobile telephone, videophone, fax, communication between computers and databases etc.);
iii. high-definition digital television systems (HDTV) providing better sound and picture quality than hertzian-wave television;
iv. digital systems for the processing and transmission of pictures by means of computers;
v. systems for the (automatic) direct conversion of sounds into texts and systems for synthesising sounds from digital signals.
The heart of each digital system usually consists of a microprocessor and a memory. Information is transmitted through electric or light impulses via:
a coaxial-cable network (electric impulses)
an optical-fibre network (light impulses)
hertzian waves (by a terrestrial transmitter or by satellite).
It should be emphasised that optical fibres offer a far greater transmission capacity than coaxial cables (roughly speaking, the ratio is at present 1:100).
The cost of an optical-fibre network is comparable to that of a coaxial-cable network. In the case of the parallel transmission of tens or hundreds of communications, the optical-fibre network becomes cheaper.
At present, the various digital systems are being harmonised and even, in some cases, integrated as a result of the use of the same physical principles and the same technical components (microprocessors, memories, optical fibres) whose recent development in real-time information-processing techniques are recently making it possible to create universal information transmission networks ("highways").
Several industrial groups are working on integrated communications systems which can cater in parallel, thanks to one optical fibre installed between a user and a communication centre:
"conventional" individual communication (by telephone and fax machine),
data transmission between computers for various purposes, including individual communication,
access to databases for individual users and possible use for education,
cable television and individual access to video libraries.
On the other side of the Atlantic, attempts are being made to construct integrated (multi-media) communications systems through the integration of sound, picture and text transmission, with a possibility of interaction. The user has the opportunity to choose individually the information transmitted (video, text, sound). These applications are basically recreational. The audiovisual technique of "virtual reality" makes it possible to give the fairly complex illusion of very real, but non-existent, surroundings, which enables people to "travel through time and space" but some users may become "addicted" to it.
Alongside recreational applications, interactive, integrated systems of communication may be applied to education and management. The new communication systems can foster the growth of democracy and the development of education on a European scale.
In the countries of central and eastern Europe it is possible to avoid the parallel construction of hertzian-wave communication networks (telephone network, cable television network, data transmission network for IT purposes etc.) and apply digital techniques and optical-fibre networks from the outset. This will rapidly permit cost-effectiveness and provide a reserve of communication capacity for future applications.
6. The issues involved
Among other things, this prospect has implications for democracy, industry and economics throughout Europe.
Democracy
It can be ensured that communications between European countries involve so many channels that, if ever there were a return to dictatorship, it would be practically impossible to sever them all.
Industry
According to the aspirations of heads of industrial companies, the development of this sector could lead to the installation of cable television in 150 million households. This could:
i. lead to the partial diversification of armaments industries,
ii. depending on the scale of the project, result in major joint ventures with corresponding companies in the west.
Economics
Progress in this sector — which already is and will continue to be mainly funded by entirely private capital — will help to convert all the inhabitants of these countries into consumers, bringing more than 350 million customers to an industry developing in east and west alike.
7.Conclusions
a. communication by cable networks, local television stations and satellite may be said to be of great importance for Europe. These different techniques can act as carriers for news and culture on a national and international scale, which is bound to contribute considerably to the advancement of democracy.
It is now possible to sense a huge potential, both within Europe and beyond, which only needs some support in order to develop.
b. Becoming proficient in cable network technology offers these countries an opportunity to earn hard currency by exporting their equipment and know-how to financially solvent countries in western Europe.
The following European countries have few or no cable networks: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and even Austria.
The potential market in these countries must therefore be explored and contacts should be made with exporting countries.
c. Any training provided should be geared to demand but, bearing in mind the variety of structures in western Europe, appropriate responses can be found.
Depending on the support which might be given to eastern Europe, these cable and hertzian-wave networks may become an integral part of the intra-European communications system.
d. Last but not least, once in place cable networks can also be used to improve telephone communications and, via the return channel, permit the use of computer and telephone services which are virtually non-existent at present in those countries.
In practice, this means that teleports could be installed in conjunction with network head stations.
e. For technical and economic reasons, the application of optical fibres may be recommended above all, while digital communication techniques should be fostered on account of their potential.
f. Thus, future communications systems have capacities well beyond those required for the needs and applications already known to us. They will also be suitable for future, as yet undefined, applications.
Excerpt from the Statute of the European Audiovisual Observatory[2]
"1. Aim and functions of the Observatory
1.1. The aim of the European Audiovisual Observatory — hereinafter "the Observatory" — shall be to improve the transfer of information within the audiovisual industry, to promote a clearer view of the market and a greater transparency. In doing so, the Observatory shall pay particular attention to ensuring reliability, compatibility and comparability of information.
1.2. Specifically, the taks of the Observatory shall be to collect and process information and statistics on the audiovisual sector (namely, legal, economic and programme information) — excluding any standard-setting or regulatory activities — and to place these at the disposal of professionals and the Audiovisual EUREKA Co-ordinators' Committee.
1.3. To perform this taks, the Observatory shall:
— bring about co-operation between suppliers of public and private information and to elaborate a policy for the negotiated use of their data base so as to foster wide distribution, whilst at the same time respecting the independence and confidentiality of information provided by professionals;
— constitute a network consisting of a central unit and co-operating institutions and partners, resting on the principles of flexibility and decentralisation and relying, as far as possible, on existing centres and institutes, in relation to which the Observatory will play not only a role of co-ordination but also of harmonisation.
1.4. As a general rule, the services thus provided by the Observatory shall be charged to users on the basis of criteria determined by the Executive Council. However, members of the Executive Council shall, in principle, have free access to information held by the Observatory, according to modalities determined by the said Council.
..."
Reporting committee: Committee on Science and Technology.
Budgetary implications for the Assembly: none.
Reference: Docs. 6620 and 6621, Reference No. 1790 of 30 June 1992.
Draft recommendation unanimously adopted by the committee on 25 October 1993.
Members of the committee: MM. Rosetá (Chairman), Mészáros, Mrs Terborg (Vice-Chairpersons), Mr Aarts, Mrs Arnold, MM. Bauer, Berger, Birraux, Borderas, Bosco, Fulvio Caccia, Paolo Caccia, Cunliffe, Deasy, De Decker, Dees, Dimmer, Dinçerler, Draus (Alternate: Bartodziej), Dumont, Galley, Hagård, Mrs Hjelm-Wallen, Mr Hurta, Mrs Kaliska (Alternate: Fico), MM. Kalos, Karaka_, Konecny, Korakas, Lenzer, López Valdivielso, Lotz, Luczak, Moran, Mrs Nybakk, MM. Panov, Pecriaux, Poças Santos, Po_éla, Albert Probst, Mrs Ragnarsdóttir, MM. Schädler, Semerdjiev, Mrs Stiborova, Sir Donald Thompson, MM. Jack Thompson (Alternate: Lord Newall), Tiuri, Toplak, Trabacchini.
N.B. The names of those who took part in the vote are printed in italics.
Secretaries to the committee: Mr Perin et Mrs Meunier.
[1]. With the exception of section 5, this text is based on a study prepared for the Parliamentary Assembly by a consultant, Mr Michel Der Andreassian (ASTEC International, France).
[2]. Appendix to Resolution (92) 70 establishing a European Audiovisual Observatory, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 15 December 1992.