Recent years have brought many changes to the world of mass media. The In ternet and mobile communications technology have provided consumers with interactive digital services. Television is catching up with this trend through the digitalization process. Digital television is a hybrid platform combining elements from classical analog television and the Internet, providing modern multimedia services on a familiar platform. In short, digital TV is a gateway to the world of interactive digital media. Digital TV brings consumers into the television service arena and offers them new degrees of freedom. However, as the service and multimedia content types diversify and the services and their content increase, television is facing many of the same challenges of complexity and information overflow faced by other digital media. Metadata can handle the diverse services and content of digital TV effi. ciently and in a consumer-friendly way. Metadata means that the data are accompanied by other data which describe them. As data about data, meta data can provide an insight into syntactically and semantically complex data by distilling their essence to a set of simple descriptors. Metadata also helps to structure and manage information in diverse settings. The use of metadata in broadcast multimedia should not be restricted to being merely a tool for coping with the challenges of a complex networked multimedia environment. Instead, metadata ofTers new opportunities for the development of innovative services.

Recent years have brought many changes to the world of mass media. The In ternet and mobile communications technology have provided consumers with interactive digital services. Television is catching up with this trend through the digitalization process. Digital television is a hybrid platform combining elements from classical analog television and the Internet, providing modern multimedia services on a familiar platform. In short, digital TV is a gateway to the world of interactive digital media. Digital TV brings consumers into the television service arena and offers them new degrees of freedom. However, as the service and multimedia content types diversify and the services and their content increase, television is facing many of the same challenges of complexity and information overflow faced by other digital media. Metadata can handle the diverse services and content of digital TV effi. ciently and in a consumer-friendly way. Metadata means that the data are accompanied by other data which describe them. As data about data, meta data can provide an insight into syntactically and semantically complex data by distilling their essence to a set of simple descriptors. Metadata also helps to structure and manage information in diverse settings. The use of metadata in broadcast multimedia should not be restricted to being merely a tool for coping with the challenges of a complex networked multimedia environment. Instead, metadata ofTers new opportunities for the development of innovative services."

Since the time when interactive television emerged as a medium for the home environment, ithasbeenpermanentlyevolving.Changingrequirementsanduser behavior, e.g., the demand for being mobile and have access to information and entertainmentanywhereandanytime, arechallenginginteractiveTV.Newkinds of interactive services have to be conceived for the increasing mobile, ubiquitous requirements of the di?erent user groups. In these changing environments, a better understanding of emerging contexts and their implications is essential. This gave birth to the idea for the theme of the EuroITV 2008 Conference: "Changing Television Environments." EuroITV 2008, the 6th edition of the - ropean Conference on Interactive Television, was organized and hosted by the HCI and Usability Unit, ICT&S Center, University of Salzburg, Austria. The EuroITV Conference Series started at Brighton University in 2003 and 2004. It was followed by Aalborg University in 2005, Athens University of Economics and Business in 2006 and by CWI (Centrum Voor Wiskunde en Informatica) in Amsterdam 2007. We would like to thank all former Chairs for making this greatconference series happen andfor providing us with the opportunity to host EuroITV 2008.