DISCOP- Budapest. The Association of Commercial TV Stations in Europe (ACT) has launched its 2007 European Television Factbook at DISCOP. Speaking to Broadband TV News, the association’s DG Ross Biggam said that, “rather than aggregate a bunch of facts and figures, we have looked at broad themes.” These fall into the categories of technical innovation, diversification, content on new platforms and excellence in programming. The ACT Factbook is aimed at people who regulate the TV industry in Europe but know little about it, especially outside such core markets as Germany, France and the UK. They may be surprised to learn that in CEE:
• Romania’s Pro TV launched HD services in December 2006
• In Croatia, Nova TV has launched the country’s first Croatian video news portal
• TV2 Hungary was offered on the WAP portals of all three of country’s mobile service providers in 2006
•Slovakia’s TV Markiza, working in conjunction with Czech TV Nova, operates a video rental service for movies and series that are “to niche” for TV but very often asked for by “non-mainstream” TV viewers.