New rules aimed at defusing radio row

Date: 13/02/1997

BELGIUM'S Flemish regional government is aiming to calm the air waves by coming up with a fresh set of rules to give local radio companies more freedom.

The new rules are aimed at defusing a complaint lodged with Commission competition officials by a European lobby group for free radio, the Flemish Radio Association, and a publicity company.

The complainants say the current stranglehold enjoyed by the public service Belgische Radio en Televisie (BRTN) over radio advertising is a direct result of discriminatory rules and allocation of frequencies by the Flemish government.

BRTN receives the lion's share of current advertising revenues since local radio rivals are not allowed to broadcast to areas more than eight kilometres from where they are based.

The Flemish government is set to relax this rule by allowing greater collaboration between local radio companies, which will allow them to develop into serious competitors for revenue.

Government officials admit this trend has already started because the current rules are so difficult to police.

Flemish Media Minister Eric van Rompuy has been trying to gauge Competition Commissioner Karel van Miert's likely reaction to the new rules before he delivers his verdict, which Van Rompuy aides believe could come as early as next week.

At the same time, the Flemish government is preparing itself for a bigger shake-up of its television regulations as it awaits the outcome of a crucial case currently making its way through the European Court of Justice.

A final judgement from the ECJ is expected within months on new channel VT4's right to beam its programmes into Flanders from its UK base, a practice which has circumvented the Flemish government's decision to give rival channel VTM an 18-year advertising monopoly within the region.

Van Rompuy's officials say a preliminary opinion last week from Advocate-General Carl-Otto Lenz was not conclusive, although most followers of the dossier took it to be in favour of VT4.

VT4's argument is that it is established in the UK and its non-Belgian status gives it the right to transmit into Flanders under the Union's Television Without Frontiers Directive, as long as it has first been cleared to do so by British authorities.

But the Flemish government and VTM argue that this is a device to get round local rules and insist that the Court should examine where the broadcaster's target audience is rather than where it transmits from.