Note presenting a scheme to ensure appropriate visibility for services of general interest

This note describes how to present, on user interface pages or home screens, services of general interest (SIG) as defined in Arcom's deliberation on the list of services qualified as being of general interest, in application of the provisions of article 20-7 of law no. 86-1067 of September 30, 1986 on freedom of communication.

This scheme complies with the requirements set out in the deliberation, notably concerning the conditions of appropriate visibility of services of general interest mentioned in the aforementioned article 20-7, although other methods are likely to meet these requirements.

It was drawn up after extensive discussions with publishers, interface operators or their representatives, the European Commission and several of Arcom's European counterparts involved in implementing similar rules, in particular in Germany, Italy and the UK.

It is based on three objectives

• to facilitate the user's experience, so that he or she can access services of general interest and their content quickly and intuitively;
• to guarantee satisfactory exposure of GIS publishers' supplies on user interfaces, in an environment under their control;
• ensure simple and proportionateimplementation procedures, based on the development of a common GIS application and promoting a harmonized approach at European level, important in particular for graphical user interfaces present on international markets.

I/ Access to services of general interest within user interfaces

The appropriate visibility of GIS is ensured by grouping all these services within a single environment.

This environment takes the form of an application, set up jointly by the publishers, which provides access to all GIS, both linear and on-demand.

The access point to this application is positioned on the interface's home page or screen, under conditions equivalent to those for accessing the other services best positioned on this page or home screen. This may take the form of a dedicated icon of a size comparable to that of these other services, and located in the same section as the latter.

Access to the application is the same as for these services (one-click selection, for example).

II/ Presentation of services of general interest within the common application

The application's home page comprises at least two sections, the first enabling direct access to each of the television services concerned, the second to specific applications whose purpose is to access, on a principal or exclusive basis, all the general interest services of a single audiovisuel group. This access is provided, for example, by icons or thumbnails that can be selected (by clicking, for example).

Services and specific applications are presented according to objective, transparent and non-discriminatory criteria. In the television services section, services can be ordered according to the logical DTT numbering system set out in article 3-1 of the French law of September 30, 1986, for services with such a number.

Within the application, users should be able to navigate ergonomically, on the one hand, between a general-interest television service and the particular application of the service editor, and, on the other hand, between general-interest television services. Thus, as of the selection of a linear service, it should be easy to access the other general-interest television services, by means, for example, of the arrow or number keys on the remote control.

From the application, users should also be able to return easily to the home page or screen of the user interface.

In the viewer's interest, the application should provide enriched features and information (a GIS program guide, for example).