IS Industry :: Content & Services
Fuel for the Information Society
The Information Society brings benefits to European business, society and culture only because it delivers useful content and services, where and when you want them. Digital content and services are therefore crucial to delivering the Information Society's benefits to Europe's society and economy ... and also represent a potentially major source of new jobs and growth.
Overview ¦ Relevant Policies ¦ Relevant Activities ¦ Example Projects
Being entertained; getting the latest sports results, financial information or weather forecasts; organising your holidays or your business; getting online training; accessing public services online ... useful content and intelligent services make our lives easier, richer and safer.
With Europe's rich cultural heritage serving as raw material, much more growth is possible
They also represent a huge new global market in which practically any innovative company or even individual can make their mark. Digital content and service providers already - directly or indirectly - employ millions of people all over Europe. With Europe's rich cultural heritage serving as raw material, much more growth is possible.
Action at European level, however, is required to stimulate that growth, for three main reasons:
- Legal certainty: Digital content and services do not stop at national borders: TV channels broadcast to other countries; telecom operators deliver their services across borders; the whole idea of online business is that it is not restricted to national markets. European regulation provides a level playing field for all content and service providers and users throughout Europe. See Relevant Policies.
- Creating Content: Europe's rich cultural heritage provides
the continent with a good starting point, but action at the EU level
is required to stimulate the creation of
multi-lingual digital content and to support Europe's film industry.
Illegal and harmful web content must also be tackled at the European
and international level.
See Relevant Activities > European Content Creation - Winning the Technological Race: To fully profit from the
European internal market, digital content and services rely on
interoperable technologies, allowing them to reach all users. These
technologies are also becoming ever more powerful and
sophisticated - a race Europe must not lose if its software and
hardware industries are to prosper. The EU therefore brings researchers
and companies together from across Europe, pooling their resources
to develop the technologies and standards required for growth.
See Relevant Activities > European Leadership in Content Technologies
Further Details and Quicklinks
- Policies
- Research
- Other Activities
- See Also
- Relevant Policies
-
Read the Overview of Relevant Policies or jump straight to the following sites:
- i2010: the 'Single
European Information Space' pillar combines regulatory and other
instruments to create a modern, market-oriented regulatory
framework, including:
- the Television without Frontiers Directive regulates, among other things, what content and what advertisement is banned from TV- and TV-like services in Europe.
- It is currently being Modernised - the proposed Audiovisual Media Service Directive will embrace both traditional linear and 'non-linear' audiovisual services.
- The i2010 focus on Inclusion, better public services and quality of life, on the other hand, is pushing Europe to use digital content & services to improve public services (see the eGovernment and eHealth themes), and ensuring everyone can access them.
- Protection of Minors and Human Dignity Recommendation (December 2006) addresses EU Member States and the content industry and suggests, among other things, the further development and implementation of filters, actions to enable minors' responsible use of audiovisual and on-line content, as well as topics such as the online right of reply.
- Intellectual Property is a vital area to digital content
and services - see:
- The Directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (2001) adapted Europe's Single Market legislation
- Intellectual Property Rights on the international stage
- Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems - important tools in protecting intellectual property in the digital world
- the European approach on Software Patents: rejected by the European Parliament in July 2005 - read more
- Public Sector Information Directive (December 2003): the public sector is the single biggest producer of information in Europe. The PSI Directive is designed to help innovators tap this rich resource to create content and services.
- Media Task Force: Created to promote diversity and pluralism in the media and the freedom of the press.
- i2010: the 'Single
European Information Space' pillar combines regulatory and other
instruments to create a modern, market-oriented regulatory
framework, including:
- Research
-
See the Research & Innovation theme for an introduction, browse some relevant Example Projects, and read the Relevant Activities > Research page for an overview of the following research activities:
- Free and Open Source Software: the EU is supporting several dozens of research projects in this area;
- Technology-enhanced learning and access to cultural heritage: see, in particular, Digital Heritage and Cultural Content (Digicult), which funds the development of intelligent systems for dynamic access to and preservation of cultural and scientific resources;
- Knowledge & Content Technologies: supporting the development of semantic-based and context-aware technologies that will provide automated solutions for knowledge representation, acquisition and management.
- Software Technologies: an essential part of the digital content and services world;
- Cognitive Systems: systems that can perceive, understand and interact with their environment, which includes interpreting information in the form of images, text, speech, video and more;
- Networked audiovisual systems and home platforms: networked and interactive audiovisual systems, applications and user devices, notably for broadcasting and in-home platforms;
- Interfaces: Human-computer interaction and multilingual systems: developing easy to use interfaces able to render human-machine interaction as natural, responsive and intuitive as any interaction between humans. The aim of multilingual systems is for citizens to be able to access, receive and use information in their own language.
- Research infrastructure: includes the development of Grids technologies, which offer new opportunities for the management, distribution and use of multimedia content.
- Other Activities
-
Read the Overview of Relevant Activities, browse some relevant Example Projects or jump straight to the following sites:
- MEDIA Programme: aims at strengthening the competitiveness of Europe’s audiovisual industry. See in particular the programme's pilot projects
- Content online: stimulating the growth of a true EU single market for online digital content, such as films, music and games. See in particular the European Charter on Film Online
- i2010 Digital Libraries Initiative: how to make Europe's Cultural and Scientific Heritage easily accessible online. See also: ICT Research in the context of digital libraries and content.
- eContentplus: promoting the take up of cutting-edge technical solutions to improve accessibility and usability of digital material in a multilingual environment
- .eu: Since April 2006, everybody having an address within the EU can register for a .eu website or email address on the Internet.
- Safer Internet Programme & Safer Internetplus: promoting the safer use of the Internet and other online technologies, particularly by children
- Privacy Enhancing Technologies cover projects in various Commission programmes aimed at minimising risks such as identity theft, discriminatory profiling, continuous surveillance and fraud.
- ICT Policy Support Programme (or ICT PSP): a component of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). The ICT PSP aims at stimulating innovation and competitiveness through the wider uptake and best use of ICT by citizens, governments and businesses and will run between 2007 and 2013.
- Innovation 2000 Initiative: loans granted by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support ICT networks, including film and audiovisual projects
- Eurimages: the Council of Europe's support programme of Europe's audiovisual industry
- See Also
-
Highlights from the Content & Services Newsroom and Library:
- Press Pack: Modernisation of the TVWF-Directive (9 March, 2007)
- Factsheet 61: MEDIA 2007: A big push for Europe's audiovisual industry (February 2007; EN/FR/DE)
- Factsheet 8: i2010: A strategy for a secure Information Society (June 2006)
- Factsheet 18: Safer Internet and Safer Internetplus: Making the Internet a Safer Place (October 2005)
- Factsheet 19: Making digital content in Europe more accessible and user friendly (June 2006)
See also:
- European Monitoring Centre on Change: Publishing and media sector - what future?
Last Updated March 2007