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ARENA |
Project summary |
Arena is a project which aims to
provide tools to measure use of new television formats, including their
interactive elements.
It will help us carry out audience research in areas such as mobile
telephones, video on demand, and the new digital television broadcast
systems now in operation. |
Background
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Audience research is a vital part
of TV and radio broadcasting, and of the more recent forms of media content
delivery, such as the internet, mobile phones, digital video recorders
and portable media viewers. These devices are examples of the convergence
of broadcasting, IT and telecoms, and are at the centre of the information-led
economy the EC is promoting. The uses for audience research range from
self-promotion to refining service offerings and setting advertising
rates. Without reliable audience data, many businesses will be reluctant
to participate in the new platforms.
This rapid proliferation of platforms and service has brought new challenges
for audience research. When there was only analogue TV, there were very
few channels to choose from, and each channel had its own frequency detectable
from the TV set. Technically it is no longer that simple, and there are
no commonly accepted metrics for new media audiences, if that is still
the right word. The technologies and the formats of the results diverge
as they follow the properties of individual platforms. When the same
content is available from different sources, it becomes difficult to
aggregate and compare audience figures.
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Arena's vision
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Arena intends to devise a basic
methodology that can be applied across these platforms and services,
and to create and demonstrate specific implementations for the Multimedia
Home Platform (MHP) over digital terrestrial and satellite channels,
Video on Demand and mobile services based on the new DVB-H standard.
It will do this by analysing requirements, and creating a reference model
applicable to any situation where digital media content is conveyed to
the public by wired or wireless connections. It will simulate the model
first on general-purpose hardware.
Open standards will be used for modelling, implementations, and for
classifying audiences and media content. The work will be publicised,
and contributions made back to standards bodies as appropriate.
The members of Arena are well-established European platform operators,
service providers, broadcasters, manufacturers and academia.
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Project facts
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ARENA is an Integrated Project
in the Thematic Priority 'Information Society Technologies' of EU Framework
Programme 6 for Research and Development (IST-027124).
Start Date: 2006-01-01 |
End Date: 2008-12-31 |
Duration: 36 months |
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BBC Contact |
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