BBC backs interactive streaming technology

The BBC is backing a E14m (£10.6m) research project to shape the future of internet TV. The four-year pan-European project, dubbed P2P-Next, aims to create a platform that would enable audiences to interact with live streaming content via a PC or set-top box. The technology could be built into future on-demand TV services and plans are underway to test the system for major broadcasting events. (New Media Age)

VoD surges in Europe

There were 258 video on demand (VoD) services operating in Europe at the end of 2007, research has revealed. A survey by the European Audiovisual Observatory and the French Government’s Media Development Department (DDM) found that the number of services jumped from 142 a year previously. Some 74pc of the services surveyed are delivered via internet, 26pc are available as part of IPTV packages and 10pc come with cable packages. As in 2006, France – with 32 services – remains the country with the highest level of VoD provision. (Silicon Republic)

European Union seeks longer music copyrights

The European Union said on Thursday that it would seek to extend copyright protection for singers and musicians to 95 years--rather than the current 50--in a move intended to let performers receive royalty payments later in life. The proposals, made by Charlie McCreevy, the commissioner for the internal market, would extend to performers the entitlements to royalty payments already received by their counterparts in the United States, and by composers in Europe, most of whom have 70 years of copyright protection. (News.com, The Guardian, PR)