Plan to scrap TV advert limit sparks media revenue battle

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 15/09/05

A row is looming over the European Commission's plans to scrap advertising limits as part of an update of EU broadcasting rules.

The issue will be one of the most contentious topics at the Liverpool Audiovisual Conference, running from Tuesday to Thursday (20-22 September), which is the final public debate before the Commission publishes its proposal for an updated Television without Frontiers (TWF) directive in December.

European Voice understands that the Commission intends scrapping the current rules that limit advertising to a maximum 20% of total airtime.

The move has angered publishers, who fear that the new rules will steal their advertising potential as marketing companies target television advertisers and has also irritated consumer groups.

"We don't want to see a weakening of the rules," said a spokesperson for the European consumers' association BEUC. The group is pushing for a limit on advertising of junk food to curb the obesity trend.

But the Commission wants to stick to its guns. "We think the consumer should be able to decide," an official said.

Another ongoing debate is the extent to which the regulation will apply to online audiovisual services. The TWF law, which dates from 1989, lays down general rules for EU broadcasting on advertising and content while encouraging European diversity, which new players argue cannot fit with the way in which new media works.

"The old [TWF] was designed for a few TV channels over which people had no choice and in that context it was reasonable. But there is no rationale for taking the regulation applied to that tight sector into the new world where there is unlimited choice," says Ilse Godlovitch of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association, ECTA, whose members include AOL and Tiscali.

But the Commission denies that it will try to force the old rules to fit the new situation.

"We are not extending anything," the official said. "This will be a Lisbon [Agenda] proposal, so it will be less prescriptive, more flexible and more open to competition. At the same time, we have to create a level playing-field for the entire audiovisual sector."

He added that there would be no rules controlling content as this would not be practical as technology moves forward. "Remember these are rules for 2010," he said.

Free-to-air television companies, whose business is threatened by new media, are in favour of including new media in the directive.

At a public hearing in the European Parliament on Tuesday (13 September) the President of Telecom Italia Media Riccardo Perissich said that new rules would be difficult for new services but "acceptable, because qualitative rules must be applied to all and because technological neutrality must be ensured".

Article reports from the Liverpool Audiovisual Conference, 20-22 September 2005, which was the final public debate before the European Commission was planning to publish its proposal for an updated Television without Frontiers (TWF) Directive in December 2005. According to the author the European Commission was planning to abolish the current rules that limited advertising to a maximum 20% of total airtime.