5 Regulation of audiovisual media services
| (a)
(27133)
15983/05
COM(05) 646
+ ADD 1
+ ADD 2
(b)
(28495)
—
—
(c)
(28552)
7944/07
COM(07) 170
(d)
28609
—
—
|
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
Commission's revised draft of the Directive
Commission opinion on the amendments adopted by the European Parliament
The Presidency's further revised draft of the Directive
|
| Legal base | Articles 47(2) and 55 EC; co-decision; QMV
|
| Department | Culture, Media and Sport
|
| Basis of consideration | (d) Minister's letter of 3 May 2007
|
| Previous Committee Reports | (a), (b) and (c) HC 41-xvii (2006-07), para 3 (18 April 2007)
(d) None
|
| To be discussed in Council | 24 May 2007
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | (All) Cleared
|
The Television without Frontiers Directive
5.1 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).[13]
5.2 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) on:
- the 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.
5.3 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 documents (a), (b) and (c)
5.4 In December 2005, the Commission presented document
(a), a draft Directive to amend the TVWF to take account of technological
and service developments since it was last updated in 1997.
5.5 The Commission proposed that linear and non-linear
services should be 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).
5.6 The Commission proposed that the draft Directive
should 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.
5.7 The Minister for Creative Industries and Tourism
at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (Mr Shaun Woodward)
told us that the Government's principal reservation about document
(a) was that it would bring non-linear services within the TVWF,
possibly including, for example, some "blogs" and personal
websites.[14] A substantial
number of Member States were coming to the conclusion that the
Directive should cover a far narrower range of services.
5.8 In November 2006, the Minister sent us a progress
report on the negotiations.[15]
He told us that the Education and Culture Council had agreed that
the application of the draft Directive to non-linear services
should be restricted to on-demand services which provide services
much like those 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 said that the amendments to the draft Directive
which were to be put to the plenary session of the European Parliament
in December 2006 were similar to those the Council had agreed
in November.
5.9 Document (c) records the Commission's opinion
on the amendments the European Parliament adopted at first reading.
Document (b) is the Commission's revised draft of the Directive.
It incorporates the amendments by the European Parliament which
the Commission accepted and the changes agreed by the Council
in November 2006.
5.10 The crucial difference between documents (a)
and (b) is that the scope of the latter is limited to television
broadcasting and other services — linear and non-linear
— which provide programmes the form and content of which
is comparable to that of television broadcasting. Document (b)
expressly excludes online games, user-generated content and any
services where the audiovisual content is incidental and not the
main purpose of the service.
5.11 In addition, document (b) differs from document
(a) by incorporating, with modifications, some of the provisions
of the eCommerce Directive.[16]
And document (b) proposes a substantially revised provision on
product placement.
5.12 In April, the Minister told us that the limited
extension of the Directive's scope to include other services which
are similar to television broadcasting was acceptable, together
with the provision for less regulation of non-linear than linear
services.
5.13 On product placement, the Government's concern
was to retain reasonable flexibility. The proposed requirement
in document (b) about informing viewers about the existence of
product placement at the start and end of the programme and when
a programme resumes after an advertising break was too prescriptive.
5.14 We asked the Minister for further progress reports
on the negotiations and, meanwhile, kept documents (a), (b) and
(c) under scrutiny.
The Minister's letter of 3 May 2007
5.15 The Minister encloses with his letter the Presidency's
revised draft of the Directive. He says that there is very little
difference between it and the Commission's draft, document (b).
5.16 The Presidency's text includes new provisions
on product placement. The Minister notes that the requirement
to notify viewers about product placement "will not be necessary
in the case of programming which has not been produced or commissioned
by the media service provider and which therefore might contain
product or prop placement without the media service provider's
knowledge". Despite this useful addition, the provision on
product placement remains, in the Government's view, over detailed.
5.17 The Minister also tells us that the Presidency's
text requires films and news programmes which contain an advertising
break to have a scheduled duration of at least 30 minutes. He
says that:
"This is a liberalisation as compared with the
current Directive, and we do of course welcome that. But there
is then a further requirement that children's programmes with
an ad break must have 'a scheduled duration of more than 30
minutes'.
"It is hard to see why children's programmes
need to be singled out in this way. The effect can only be to
place even more strain on a genre which is already under threat
on commercial free-to-air TV stations."
5.18 The Minister concludes, however, that these
minor reservations would not justify opposing or abstaining on
the Presidency's text when it is put to the Council for political
agreement on 24 May. He asks us, therefore, to clear the document.
He also tells us that it is very likely that the European Parliament
will not have a substantive second reading of the revised draft
Directive.
Conclusion
5.19 In the light of the Minister's explanation,
we are content to clear the Presidency's text from scrutiny. We
also clear documents (a), (b) and (c) which have been superseded
by document (d).
13 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
14
See HC 34-xxxix (2005-06), para 4 (25 October 2006). Back
15
See HC 41-iv (2006-07), para 2 (14 December 2006). Back
16
Directive 2000/31/EC: OJ No. L 178, 17.7.00, p.1. Back
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