Thursday, 27 November 2008 15:45
All recorded TV programmes are available for the general public
The ORTT has recorded all programmes broadcasted by Hungarian TV channels since 2000. From now on, the database will be available for anyone who wants to see a particular programme and is prepared to visit the media authority’s HQ. The system is very similar to that of the National Audio-Visual Archives, except that it is much cheaper to operate.
From this Monday, the National Radio and Television Commission (ORTT) database, which contains about 5 million hours of programmes, will be available for the general public, the media authority announced at its Budapest press conference on Thursday.
“In order to support their law enforcement activities”, they are obliged by law to record broadcasted programmes; this is necessary for the consideration of complaints that have been submitted and for the performance of thematic or broadcaster-based research as well, said László Majtényi, chairman of the ORTT.
He also added that the project, which involves the recording and storage of 800,000 hours of programmes per year, has drawn intense interest and recognition from the international audience. The programmes broadcasted within the past year will be promptly available from this Friday in the headquarters of the ORTT (Budapest, Reviczky u. 5.), where a room equipped for research purposes await visitors who will have to register in advance. Programmes older than a year are stored on high-performance magnetic tapes, and so their loading may take about 20-60 minutes. The ORTT is going to deploy further servers on 1 January, allowing visitors direct access to programmes from the last 480 days.
As According to László Majtényi, university and high school teachers and students, journalists and people having disputes with broadcasters are expected to avail of this service, but they can count on others who are simply interested in this new opportunity.
András Mádl, programme monitoring and assessment director of the media authority, explained that the database can be searched by broadcaster, time of broadcasting or, in the case of news programmes, by people appearing on the scene, adding that they also plan to assign data to the programmes about the number of viewers or listeners they attracted.
The Hungarian government authorised the establishment of the National Audio-Visual Archives (NAVA) in 2004. The project covers the recording and storage of programmes broadcasted by the two major commercial channels and also makes the stored data available at various locations, mainly in schools, through NAVA points. In the framework of the project some 17,000 hours of programmes are recorded per year, which represents only the half of the overall programme time of the two channels. The ORTT records and stores the programmes of 84 Hungarian TV channels and radio stations for a fraction of the costs of the establishment of the NAVA points, even though at a lower quality. Experts say that the system set up by the ORTT could be developed into a database accessible from hundreds of computers, making it available from libraries and schools as well, for a fraction of the annual budget of the NAVA.
However, as the copyright laws do not allow the ORTT to share its archives with other institutions, at present the government pays the NAVA, the ORTT and even the digital archives at the National Széchényi Library for this activity. It is worth mentioning that under the new media law the NAVA would have been supervised by a newly established media authority, saving hundreds of millions per year for the state. However, the new media law was rejected by the socialists, based on the argument that it would have had too tight a control over the media. They saw no chance of passing the law even after its thorough revision.
“In order to support their law enforcement activities”, they are obliged by law to record broadcasted programmes; this is necessary for the consideration of complaints that have been submitted and for the performance of thematic or broadcaster-based research as well, said László Majtényi, chairman of the ORTT.
He also added that the project, which involves the recording and storage of 800,000 hours of programmes per year, has drawn intense interest and recognition from the international audience. The programmes broadcasted within the past year will be promptly available from this Friday in the headquarters of the ORTT (Budapest, Reviczky u. 5.), where a room equipped for research purposes await visitors who will have to register in advance. Programmes older than a year are stored on high-performance magnetic tapes, and so their loading may take about 20-60 minutes. The ORTT is going to deploy further servers on 1 January, allowing visitors direct access to programmes from the last 480 days.
As According to László Majtényi, university and high school teachers and students, journalists and people having disputes with broadcasters are expected to avail of this service, but they can count on others who are simply interested in this new opportunity.
András Mádl, programme monitoring and assessment director of the media authority, explained that the database can be searched by broadcaster, time of broadcasting or, in the case of news programmes, by people appearing on the scene, adding that they also plan to assign data to the programmes about the number of viewers or listeners they attracted.
The Hungarian government authorised the establishment of the National Audio-Visual Archives (NAVA) in 2004. The project covers the recording and storage of programmes broadcasted by the two major commercial channels and also makes the stored data available at various locations, mainly in schools, through NAVA points. In the framework of the project some 17,000 hours of programmes are recorded per year, which represents only the half of the overall programme time of the two channels. The ORTT records and stores the programmes of 84 Hungarian TV channels and radio stations for a fraction of the costs of the establishment of the NAVA points, even though at a lower quality. Experts say that the system set up by the ORTT could be developed into a database accessible from hundreds of computers, making it available from libraries and schools as well, for a fraction of the annual budget of the NAVA.
However, as the copyright laws do not allow the ORTT to share its archives with other institutions, at present the government pays the NAVA, the ORTT and even the digital archives at the National Széchényi Library for this activity. It is worth mentioning that under the new media law the NAVA would have been supervised by a newly established media authority, saving hundreds of millions per year for the state. However, the new media law was rejected by the socialists, based on the argument that it would have had too tight a control over the media. They saw no chance of passing the law even after its thorough revision.