Digital Agenda: First meeting of EU Media Futures Forum

Neelie Kroes said: "I want out-of-the box thinking. I want to know what the Commission can do to facilitate media's contribution to our democracy and economic growth. The digital revolution is turning media upside down: how can we use the digital Single Market and other tools to capture the potential of this new dynamic?"

The Commission will be looking for Forum members to foster debate throughout 2012, by bringing ambitious personal thinking to the Forum rather than homogenised industry or company views.

The Forum draws on the knowledge and experience of more than 20 personalities from the publishing, broadcasting, advertising, telecommunications, equipment manufacturers, social media and online industries. Members of the European Parliament and representatives of the Council of Ministers have a standing invitation to participate in this Forum

EU Media Futures Forum topics

The debate on the futures of media industries in Europe will address questions such as:

1) What are the big trends in the media industry in Europe and globally?

2) What is the impact of these trends on business models, competition, pluralism and content creation in Europe?

3) What are the main opportunities and barriers in creating a digital media content market in Europe? What needs to be done to attain or overcome them?

4) How can the European media industries best benefit from the technological developments to enhance their competitiveness globally?

5) What are the conditions for sustainable business models that can deliver quality journalism?

For more information

Digital Agenda website: http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda

The Media Task force website:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/media_taskforce/index_en.htm

The audiovisual and media policies website:

http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/index_en.htm

Neelie Kroes' website: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/

Follow Neelie Kroes on Twitter: http://twitter.com/neeliekroeseu

Annex

Members attending first meeting

Chairman, Christian van Thillo, CEO of De Persgroep

Annet Aris, Adjunct Professor of Strategy, INSEAD

Nicolas Gaudemet, Vice-President Strategy, Customer Research & International Development, Orange Content & Digital Services

Emmanuel Gabla, Member of the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel, France

Patrick Grueter, Vice-President, Disney

Jesper Hermansen, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Danish Ministry of Culture

Paul Hofheinz, President, The Lisbon Council

Lauri Kivinen, CEO, Yleisradio Oy (YLE)

Rhys Nölke, Vice-President Business Development, RTL Group

Prof. Caroline Pauwels, Director of the Center for Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunication, Free University Brussels

James Powell, Executive Vice-President and CTO, Thomson Reuters

Dominik Skoczek, Director, Intellectual Property and Media Department, Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage

Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP Group

Rob de Spa, Director of Content and Editorial Development, Wegener Media

Prof. Ed Steinmueller, Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Sussex

Xavier Vidal-Folch, Deputy Director, El Pais

Marc de Vries, CEO, Hyves

Piotr Walter, Vice-President and Deputy CEO, TVN S.A.

Dr. Andreas Wiele, Member of the Board and President BILD Group and Magazines, Axel Springer

Confirmed as Forum Members but not attending first meeting:

Matt Brittin, Vice-President Northern and Central Europe, Google

Oscar Bronner, Editor-in-chief, Der Standard

Julien Codorniou, Head of Platform Partnerships, Facebook

Ruud Hendriks, Independent consultant

Erkki Ormala, Vice-President Technology Policy, Nokia

Gavin Patterson, CEO, BT Retail

David Ripert, Vice-President Content, Dailymotion