European Commission at CeBIT 2007 : Mobile TV :: Programme :: Dr. Hans Hege
Speakers
Dr. Hans Hege
Dr. Hans Hege is the director of mabb, the Berlin regulatory authority for
commercial broadcasting, and chairman of the Joint Unit for Digital Access of
the Association of the German regulatory authorities. The Joint Unit deals with
digital television and analogue-digital migration.
Since 1995, Dr. Hege has been dealing with the development of digital tv, first in his capacity of chairman of a working group on digital video broadcasting, and since 2000 as the chairman of the Joint Unit for Digital Access. In these functions, Dr. Hege has been instrumental in shaping the framework for the introduction of digital television. Another focus of his work is the cable industry.
Based on this expertise, Dr. Hege developed the concept for the first switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial tv transmission and negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding with the major public-sector and commercial broadcasters which was put into effect during 2002-2003. The concept included measures of communication as well as measures for making the switchover socially acceptable for the less well-off viewers. In August 2003, Berlin-Brandenburg as the first region worldwide switched off analogue terrestrial tv.
The options this migration has opened up ("digital dividend") and the digitisation of cable networks continue to rank as prime objectives in the work of the mabb.