Reding urged to halt uncertainty over television directive

Date: 13/06/02

By Peter Chapman

AUDIOVISUAL Commissioner Viviane Reding is being urged to offer guidance for national regulators to fill the legal void posed by 'smart' new forms of advertising.

Media law experts are warning that the TV industry faces legal uncertainty over high-tech interactive, split-screen and virtual advertising.

That is because the EU's 'television without frontiers' directive, which sets strict rules on content, timing of adverts and on-screen sponsorship, is being implemented in different ways across member states. The warning for Reding comes in a report by legal firm Bird & Bird and advertising buyer Carat Crystal, which forms part of a raft of studies demanded by the commissioner to assess the effectiveness of the 1989 law. Reding says she will use the results to help her decide whether or not radical changes are needed to the code - drafted long before the internet and digital TV became a commercial reality.

But the experts say there is no need for Reding to overhaul the directive to target these new techniques.

Instead, they say she should table guidelines showing how the existing law - which includes a ban on tobacco adverts and limits on commercials for alcoholic drinks and medicines - should be applied.

In the 116-page report, the Brussels-based experts also tell Reding how they believe it should be done.

On interactive advertising - which gives viewers total control of the programmes and adverts they watch - they question the need for regulation of length and content of adverts at all. But they say there should be a clear distinction between commercials and programmes.

On the use of split screens - banned in the Netherlands, France, Portugal and Sweden - the experts say the existing EU rules should apply if the adverts share part of the screen with a regular programme. The law should also apply for 'virtual advertising' or sponsorships - banned in Italy, France and Portugal - where digital technology allows the name of a particular advertiser to be inserted into a blank space, such as a soccer pitch hoarding.

Audiovisual Commissioner Viviane Reding is being urged to offer guidance for national regulators to fill the legal void posed by 'smart' new forms of advertising.