EUROITV

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 8th European Conference on Interactive TV and Video -- EuroITV 2010 in Tampere, Finland. TV and video service undergo a tremendous change in recent years. The media systems are transforming into a media environment consisting of a more and more integrated eco-system of media services rather than single entertainment services. To cope with the latest trend, EuroITV 2010's theme was "web.sharing,tv.content" - "web," as more and more audio-visual services are distributed via the Internet rather than via proprietary channels; "sharing," as sharing experiences and consumer contributed content became a major part of the media consumed today; "tv," as TV is still the main medium for consuming audio-visual content; "content," as content and the story as such is still one of the main reasons why we are enjoying media. To discuss these trends, this years' conference gathered academic and industrial key players in the field of TV and video to discuss the latest trends and future visions.

This year's conference re-invented the conference series by introducing a few new features. First, a completely new track devoted to the research of "interactive content" and its applications and foundations has been added to the program: interactive content and arts. Second, EuroITV 2010 features a competition attempting to promote creators, developers, and designers of interactive video content, applications, and services that enhance the television and video viewing experience for consumers worldwide. A total price sum of EUR 3.000 is given to the winners of the competition. Third, EuroITV 2010 kept up with the latest trends of audio-visual services, and extended the topics of the conference to cope with these challenges, which is reflected in the overall conference theme "web.sharing.tv.content". Forth, a journal special issue, devoted solely to the latest trends and most innovative papers breaking the frontiers of the current state-of-the-art has been established. This special issue is solely for creative thinkers and visionaries taking part in the conference and shall act as conference outcome and analysis to develop a pathway for the future.

The call for papers attracted more than 150 submissions from Europe, South America, United States, Asia, and Africa. From these submissions, 24 full papers and 23 short papers have been selected for presentation during the various conference sessions. From 10 submitted workshop proposals, only 5 made it into the final conference program after a thorough review process. From the 6 tutorial submissions, 5 tutorials are going to be held during the conference.

We hope that the conference program will fascinate you, and provide a valuable possibility to gain knowledge or network with other researchers in the field. We are sure, that it will provide a unique possibility to discuss, socialize, and get new insights in the field.