EC Unveils New Television Advertising Rules

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

28 May 2007

A political agreement was reached last Thursday on the new Audiovisual Media Services without frontiers Directive.

Both the European Parliament and Council agreed on the main aims of the Commission's original proposal to modernise the rules governing the audiovisual services industry.

The new legislation will offer a comprehensive legal framework that covers all audiovisual media services, less detailed and more flexible regulation and modernised rules on TV advertising to better finance audiovisual content.

"Today, we have made a decisive step towards a true internal market for audiovisual media services and to a more competitive European audiovisual content industry," announced Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media.

She continued:

"This important piece of modernising legislation brings Europe's audiovisual policies into the 21st century, providing a welcome shot in the arm to industry. It promises less regulation, better financing for European content and higher visibility to Europe's key values, cultural diversity and the protection of minors."

The new Audiovisual Media Services without frontiers Directive aims to ensure that the modernised rules cover all audiovisual media services, regardless of the transmission technology used - from traditional TV broadcasts to emerging on-demand TV-like services. This will help the sector become more competitive in the future.

The modernised Directive remains fully based on the country of origin principle. It contains a procedure, based on European Court of Justice law, that allows Member States to take binding measures against broadcasters from other Member States that circumvent the target country's national rules.

Audiovisual producers will also benefit from less detailed and more flexible advertising rules, opening up new attractive avenues of finance, which will ultimately stimulate the content production sector.

Citizens are granted new rights by the modernised Directive. This includes the right to access extracts of important events for general new purposes, clear identification of the media service provider; improved access for people with visual or hearing disabilities to audiovisual media services, and clear rules on product placement, obliging broadcasters to inform consumers when it takes place.

The new Directive also reasserts key European values, requiring Member States to protect minors, to promote European works and independent audiovisual productions, and to prohibit content that would incite religious or racial hatred. It explicitly encourages industry self-regulation and co-regulation.

The Directive is expected to enter into force before the end of the year. Member States will be given 24 months to transpose the new provisions into national law, so that the modernised legal framework for audiovisual business will fully apply in 2009.

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