World's most boring TV show to measure energy use

GENEVA, Oct 2 (Reuters) Television manufacturers and broadcasters have produced what may be the world's most boring TV programme to measure energy consumption on new-generation televisions, an energy standards group said today.

The aim is to have a standard way of measuring how much energy plasma and LCD TVs use, the Geneva-based International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) said in a statement.

If plasma and LCD TVs do use more energy than older televisions, that would push up demand for power and possibly affect climate change.

TV broadcasters and manufacturers edited together a mix of different genres spanning soap operas, nature programmes and sports, and assessed the proportion of broadcasting for each type of genre in the world, it said.

This is because the power needed by a television for the images varies according to the type of programme broadcast.

But the 10-minute programme is an incoherent compilation and lacks drama. It can be compared with the test patterns or test cards that used to be broadcast to allow viewers to tune their sets, IEC spokesman Dennis Brougham said.

''The images are supposed to be a representation of what we watch, but when you stick it together it doesn't make much sense,'' he told Reuters.

Reducing energy use per model by 25 percent by 2009 could save more than 10 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year in the United States alone, the IEC said.

The programme will be included in a new international standard from the IEC offering a way to measure power consumption and providing manufacturers with a way to provide accurate energy label ratings for consumers.

REUTERS ARB KN1812