2 Regulation of audiovisual media services
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15983/05
COM(05) 646
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| Draft Directive amending Council Directive 89/552/EEC on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities
Impact assessment of the draft Directive
Statistical annex
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| Legal base | Articles 47(2) and 55 EC; co-decision; QMV
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| Department | Culture, Media and Sport
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| Basis of consideration | Minister's letter of 27 November 2006
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| Previous Committee Report | HC 34-xxxix (2005-06), para 4 (25 October 2006)
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Not cleared; further information awaited
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Background
2.1 Scheduled television broadcasts can be received by analogue
and digital televisions (terrestrial, satellite and cable) and
the Internet. They are regulated by the 1989 Television without
Frontiers Directive (TVWF).[7]
2.2 The TVWF requires every Member State to ensure that all scheduled
television broadcasts by broadcasters within its jurisdiction
comply with the rules contained in the Directive (or with its
own stricter rules) about protection of public access to broadcasts
about events of major importance; freedom for broadcasts transmitted
in one Member State to be received in others; the proportion of
broadcasts of European origin (quotas); the duration and content
of advertising and teleshopping; the protection of minors; the
prohibition of incitement to hatred on grounds of race, sex, religion
or nationality; and rights of reply.
2.3 The TVWF regulates "linear services" (scheduled
broadcasts, the order of which the viewer cannot change). It does
not apply to "non-linear services" (audiovisual programmes
available to the viewer on demand and not at a time scheduled
by the broadcaster).
Previous scrutiny of the document
2.4 The Commission presented the draft Directive in December 2005.
Its purpose is to amend the TVWF to take account of technological
and service developments since it was last up-dated in 1997.
2.5 The draft of the Directive would make linear and non-linear
services subject to the same minimum requirements about:
- access to short reports on events of high interest to the
public;
- the name and address of the media service provider;
- the protection of minors;
- the prohibition of incitement to hatred;
- the promotion of work of European origin;
- the contents of advertising; and
- the sponsorship of audiovisual services (for example, tobacco
companies would not be able to sponsor a linear or non-linear
programme).
2.6 The proposed Directive would apply to audiovisual media services
which provide moving images to the public over the Internet; mobile
networks; terrestrial, satellite and cable networks; and any other
electronic network. It would not apply to sound-only services
and electronic versions of newspapers and magazines.
2.7 In January 2006, the then Minister for Creative Industries
and Tourism at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (James
Purnell) told us that the Government had major reservations about
important aspects of these proposals.[8]
We asked the Minister to tell us the outcome of the Government's
consultations on the draft Directive and the substance of the
Government's reservations. We also asked him for reports on the
progress of the negotiations.
2.8 In October, the Minister for Creative Industries and Tourism
at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (Mr Shaun Woodward)
sent us a long and thoughtful reply to our request for further
information.[9] He said
that the Government has always supported the basic principles
of the TVWF, which laid the foundations for a single Market in
television services while offering viewers basic safeguards for
the content of broadcasts. But the time is right for re-examination
of the Directive in the light of changes in the television industry
and its technology.
2.9 The Government's principal reservation about the draft Directive
was that it would bring non-linear services within the TVWF, possibly
including some "blogs" and personal websites, the moving
picture content of the websites of global and national news agencies,
online games and online gambling.
2.10 The Minister told us that the Government had been working
hard to make sure that other Member States and Members of the
European Parliament understood the Government's reservations about
the inclusion of non-linear services in the Directive. Recent
discussions suggested that a substantial number of Member States
were coming to the conclusion that the Directive should cover
a far narrower range of services. The Minister said:
"In particular there is a distinct school of thought
that these services should be restricted to those — in particular
'video-on-demand' — that directly compete with television
in terms of the programme content that they offer and are effectively
operating in a similar market."
2.11 The Minister added that the Committees of the European Parliament
which are considering the draft Directive also appeared to be
moving in favour of a narrower and clearer definition of non-linear
services.
The Minister's letter of 27 November 2006
2.12 The Minister's progress report on the negotiations tells
us that, at the Education and Culture Council on 13 November,
agreement was reached that the application of the draft Directive
to non-linear services should be restricted to on-demand services
which provide services much like the services covered by the TVWF
and which compete in the same market. So it would not apply to
weblogs, on-line games and user-generated material. The Minister
says that the amendments to the draft Directive which are to be
put to the plenary session of the European Parliament in December
are similar to those the Council had agreed in November.
2.13 The Government remains concerned, however, about Article
11. It provides that a children's programme must not contain an
advertising break unless the programme lasts longer than 30 minutes.
The Government is not persuaded that this restriction is justified
and will pursue the point in the further negotiations on the draft
Directive.
Conclusion
2.14 We are grateful to the Minister for his letter. We shall
keep the draft Directive under scrutiny pending receipt of a further
progress report and a revised text in the light of the European
Parliament's first reading.
7 Council Directive 89/552/EEC (OJ No. L 298, 17.10.89,
p.23) as amended by Directive 97/36/EC (OJ No. L 202, 30.7.97,
p.60). Back
8
See HC 34-xvi (2005-06), para 6 (25 January 2006) Back
9
See headnote. Back
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