Commission switches on to twenty-first century TV rules

By Aoife White

Date: 12/05/05

European broadcasting rules are heading for a major overhaul this year as regulators grapple with radical changes in the way people use media.

The out-of-date Television without Frontiers (TWF) directive needs to be dragged into the 21st century but some are worried that broadcasting rules designed for an 'old world' will be stretched to cover new media.

EU officials have spent the last two years consulting with public broadcasters and their privately funded rivals, publishers, film producers, telecoms companies and internet service providers (ISPs).

Discussions will enter an intensive phase at the beginning of July when the European Commission publishes an issue paper and formally seeks views from national broadcasting regulators, the media and the information technology industry. It plans to issue a proposal in December after one last round of debate at a UK presidency conference on broadcasting in September.

The directive dates back to 1989, an age when some 47 national television channels beamed free-to-air programmes to EU audiences.

The recent information revolution means viewers can now pick and choose between satellite, cable and pay-TV channels or watch TV and video over the internet. Essentially, viewers are more involved in what they are watching. Football fans swap text messages during a game, check out goal statistics on interactive TV or head online to talk to other supporters.

"TWF is not really transposable to the new media environment. We are seeing the clash of two worlds: TV and internet," said Sandro Bazzanella, director of regulatory affairs at the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA), which represents 150 European telecoms companies.

"We would be concerned about an inappropriate level of obligation on new media," said Ross Biggam, director-general of the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT). "The existing text needs to be significantly changed for digital broadcasting. The environment has changed beyond recognition." Biggam points to the emergence of many of ACT members who don't meet the traditional definition of national broadcasters - pay-TV stations such as Germany's Premiere or France's Canal Plus.

The British broadcasting regulator Ofcom - the only European agency to have responsibility for both electronic communications and broadcasting - warned last year that the media industry urgently needed to discuss technological changes which made many existing rules on advertising and broadcasting irrelevant.

At present, broadcasters and advertisers face restrictions on what times they show adult content and how long advertising breaks should be. Video-on-demand changes the landscape. The so-called watershed forbidding unsuitable content for children during daytime viewing hours makes no sense to online audiences who can watch what they like when they like. Advertisers need to find new ways to entice customers who can edit out a four-minute advertising break.

Choice and control has increased massively, said Matt Peacock, Ofcom's director of communications. "The [new media] user is the regulator. The responsibility lies with the user to install filtering software or parental controls," Peacock added, asking whether it was feasible, desirable or appropriate to extend rules on content to new media.

The debate is only starting to kick off. "We expect to contribute quite heavily," he said. "Any discussion in this area is intense. Electronic communications underpin modern democracy."

Article takes a look at the planned review of the European Union's legislation in the field of broadcasting. It was generally recognised that new rules had to take on board the technological changes, especially the emergence of new media, since the 1989 Television without frontiers Directive had been adopted. After a two-year consultation process the European Commission was planning to publish an issue paper on the topic in July 2005.

• Primary Source

European Commission: DG Information Society and Media: Audiovisual and Media Policies: Regulatory Framework http://ec.europa.eu/comm/avpolicy/reg/index_en.htm

---