Brussels, 20/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Thursday 19 February, the European Parliament adopted the report by Ivo Belet (EPP-ED, Belgium) on Community participation in the European Audiovisual Observatory by 586 votes to 20, with 48 abstentions. In so doing, it stressed that the convergence of information society services and media services, networks and devices had raised new challenges for research in the audiovisual sector, which should be reflected in the Observatory's activities.
Parliament says that the European Audiovisual Observatory must be provided with the resources needed to allow it to continue to achieve its objectives, “thereby effectively keeping step with new developments in multimedia and new technologies”. Parliament calls on the Observatory to “extend its activities to cover more specifically the latest challenges that are created by media convergence and new developments, giving particular attention to the analysis of the impact of digitalisation on the film and audiovisual industry in general and the analysis of online audiovisual services, mobile TV and video games”.
The EP also suggests that the Observatory cover the issues of copyright and matters of taxation and labour law in the audiovisual sector in Europe. MEPs welcome the planned overhaul of the Observatory website and encourage it to provide more data on the availability of specific audiovisual services, such as subtitling, audio description and sign language, designed to assist disabled people. (L.C./transl.rt)