The chair of the DVB, Peter MacAvock, has said his successor should be drawn from a generation of people that weren’t around at the time of the formation of the organisation for digital TV specifications.
“It should be someone who will seek to wipe away the cobwebs and build an organization that’s dynamic and diverse. DVB still counts for something but arguably the reason it still counts is its legacy, which is also what weighs it down,” MacAvock told the DVB’s house magazine DVB Scene.
MacAvock used the article to announce his departure from the DVB when his current term comes to an end, this suggests he’ll leave the organisation during 2024.
He joined the DVB in January 1994, just after its creation, to run its Project Office. He left in 2008 to take up a full-time position at the European Broadcasting Union but was elected chair of DVB in 2016.
MacAvock said the move to streaming services was far greater than the earlier transition between analogue and digital technologies. “We see the rise of the big tech SVOD streamers operating in an environment that’s less regulated than the one in which DVB Members traditionally operate and therefore allows greater flexibility. In terms of their technology choices, they don’t look much to the world of standardisation.”
He now believes a fundamental change is needed to the way the DVB operates because it has turned into a “ponderous organization that looks and feels more like the classic standardization bodies it sought never to become”.
MacAvock says that to remain relevant to remain relevant the organisation needs to look closely at the processes he believes have become cumbersome in recent years. In doing so it needs to identify what the industry sector wants to do with itself and set about shaping the interoperable solutions that would facilitate that.
