The
European Commission has signalled its intent to replace the
Television Without Frontiers (TVWF) Directive with a new framework
that would regulate not just traditional television but new media
TV-like services. The move towards an Audiovisual Media Services
(AVMS) Directive is opposed by business groups who claim that
extending TV rules to new media will discourage new business in
Europe.
In relation to internet-delivered television services (IPTV),
the study, conducted by RAND Europe, found that while 'walled
garden' services controlled by broadcaster-like companies could be
regulated, a more internet-like 'open access' style of content
delivery would involve content producers outside of the EU and
therefore the scope of any Directive.
If that open access model is adopted, any Directive could
discourage web-broadcasting business to be established in the EU,
said the report.
The study found that the new AVMS Directive "could itself be a
contributory cause of the migration of economic activity towards
this ‘open-access’ model, but clearly, the heavier and less
practicable the EU regime, the more likely it is that distributors
will favour alternate means to address consumers."
It said that the market for TV-like content had changed more
quickly than regulation had. "The single point of control assumed
in most broadcasting and telecoms regulation has given way
increasingly to clustering, hybridisation and agglomeration of
skills within virtual organisations, in ways that have not been
reflected fully in regulatory impact analyses."
The report found that the increased costs associated with heavy
regulation could force companies that otherwise would establish
themselves in the EU to move elsewhere. Ofcom said that, based on
the report, its view was that regulation should be light.
"Legislators should ensure that there is clear guidance to the
Commission and national authorities to ensure that the
implementation of the Directive is conducted in a proportionate,
transparent, evidence-based and light touch way," said an Ofcom
statement. "Critical to this is to encourage that IPTV and mobile
multimedia industries, amongst others, play a full part through
self and co-regulation in shaping the rules that will apply to
individual industry sectors."
Ofcom even said that the Commission should question whether
regulation was needed at all. "The Commission should examine
whether or not there is a continued need for regulatory measures,"
it said. "Over-regulation risks otherwise driving key strategic
activities outside of the EU."
Earlier this year business lobby group the CBI said that new
media content should not be regulated as if it were television.
"TVWF as drafted would shoehorn digital content providers into
rules designed for traditional broadcasters, undermining
high-value, high-tech economic growth when it should be stimulating
it," said the group.
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