§ Mr. AllenTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment he has made of whether it will be possible to oblige manufacturers of decoding systems for television transmission to fit, in addition to the proprietary 301W conditional access system, a connector to the decoder box for a common interface; and if the Government support the concept of a common interface throughout Europe.
§ Mr. Ian TaylorThe Government have looked closely at this issue. The development of a common interface for conditional access equipment is an option provided for in the draft EC directive on standards for television broadcasting. A common position on this directive was adopted by the Council on 13 November 1994. The directive is now being considered by the European Parliament. The European Digital Video Broadcasting Group—an industry body with a standard-making role—has developed an agreed technical specification for such an interface. If the directive is adopted in the terms of the common position, the common interface will be an option, but not a requirement, for manufacturers of set-top boxes. However, manufacturers will be obliged to incorporate in equipment the capacity to descramble signals according to a common European algorithm.
The Government have supported these developments. The Government consider that it is important that the option of a common interface should be open to manufacturers and to those establishing conditional access systems for digital television. But the Government are also firmly of the view that a common interface should not be mandatory for conditional access systems: such systems involve a considerable investment, and face a real risk of piracy. Not all operators will want manufacturers to install a common interface; they should not be obliged to do so.
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