EBS Plus- Thank God, but Why, Why, and Why

 

I’m very happy to see that EBS is expanding with a plus channel… Thank god that there is expansion. There are however three small things I don’t understand:

1) why (since they have the raw material) don’t they use a more userfriendly platform? (Realplayer is absolutely TERRIBLE)

2) why don’t they add embeding codes to the darn videos so they can REALLY circulate the internet and be seen by the citizens of Europe…

3) Why didn’t they put EUROPARLTV on this platform as well, with both a website and a satelite channel playing a playlist of selected parliament videos and live coverage at the same time? There was nothing to stop the company from making a user-friendly, approachable interface AND having an EBS type platform. ..

Why Why Why?

See below the press release for EBS+

 

 

EU launches Europe by Satellite ‘Plus’ channel: Test phase from October to December 2008

The European Union institutions are launching an additional Europe by Satellite channel at the beginning of 2009 in order to offer more EU-related raw material to broadcasters and more access to EU-related events to the media and the general public. The test phase of the new channel, EbS+, is scheduled from 6 October to the end of December 2008.

 

EbS is an inter-institutional TV service established in 1996 that provides broadcast-quality, up-to-the-minute and free-of-charge audiovisual coverage of EU news to media professionals and other interested parties around the world. It offers live transmissions of EU news through the SIRIUS IV satellite and through the EbS portal on the Europa server (http://ec.europa.eu/avserviCES/EBS). The material on offer also includes archived images and sounds.

 

Due to the increased number of events of major importance taking place in parallel, an additional EbS channel: EbS+, will be launched on 1 January 2009.

 

The two EbS channels will have the same mission of transmitting EU-related raw content without editorial comment, whether live coverage or edited news extracts.

 

This expansion will allow transmitting more live coverage of EU-related events, giving access to more EU events not only by the media but also by the general public. And so that the general public may use the service to follow important EU events, such as open debates of the Council, presentations of the Commission’s proposals or plenary sessions of the European Parliament and committee meetings, the enlarged service will also offer a multilingual web streaming service.

 

How to receive EbS+

 

EbS+ is on the same satellite with the same reception details as EbS. Reception details at: http://ec.europa.eu/avserviCES/EBSPLus.

 

A satellite receiver that has been tuned to receive EbS will automatically have set itself to receive in EbS+.

 

Depending on the make and model of satellite tuner, EbS+ either will be listed in the programme menu or will be available as a service to be selected manually. If, for some reason, EbS+ is not listed, then a simple re-scan of the transponder will correct the situation. Each service carries the same range of language channels and these are selected via the menu.