The controversial proposal has been
characterised by podcasters and web media specialists as an attempt
to impose television-like state regulation on new media. The
proposed Directive has been changed to allay those fears.
Proposed by the Commission as a way to extend
regulation beyond traditional television and into some online video
services, the new proposal was significantly amended by the
European Parliament last December.
The Parliament passed a heavily-changed
document which made it clear that regulation must apply only to
commercial television-like services and not to user generated
content such as that found on YouTube.
The proposed Directive says that a heavier
regulatory burden must rest on material delivered to a schedule, in
the style of traditional television. On demand services will also
be regulated, but significantly more lightly, it said.
A crucial element of the consolidated text of
the AVMS proposal is the maintenance of the 'country of origin'
principle contained in the TV Without Frontiers Directive, which
was passed in 1989. This means that a television station will be
regulated according to the laws of the country where it is
established, and saves it the burden of being bound by the laws of
all 27 EU member states.
The Commission hopes that the plan will be
adopted as a common position by Parliament and the Council on 24th
May.
"Thanks to the ambitious work of the European
Parliament and the intense efforts of the German Presidency over
the past months, Europe's new legal framework for a more
competitive, more diverse and more pluralistic audiovisual media
sector is now within reach," said Information Society and Media
Commissioner Viviane Reding. "I am confident that we will now
achieve political agreement on the new 'Audiovisual Without
Frontiers' Directive by the end of May. Europe's internal market
would then be truly open for providers and consumers of audiovisual
services by the end of 2008 at the latest."
The proposal still has its critics, though.
The House of Lords European Union Committee recently urged
opposition to the proposal, saying that it was a way for
established broadcasters to protect their advertising market
against new competition.
"We firmly reject the idea that regulators
should act to preserve the market dominance of established players
from new entrants," said a report produced by the Committee. It
said the Committee was "unconvinced of the need for any
quantitative restrictions on advertising in a market which is now
clearly open to competition".
The proposed Directive will also open the door
for more flexibility in advertising in traditional television. "New
forms of commercial such as product placement have the potential to
provide significant revenues for TV broadcasters and the
audiovisual industry as a whole," said Reding. "We need to support
the competitiveness of European film, while at the same time
clearly excluding product placement from children's programmes,
news, documentaries, and current affairs programmes."
