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Audiovisual Media Services Directive |
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(revision of the TV without Frontiers Directive)
What's it about?
The review of the TV without Frontiers Directive (or the Audiovisual Media Services Directive as the revised version will be known) has been of great importance to organisations in the media, technology and telecoms sectors across Europe.
Originally devised in 1989, TVWF creates a single market in the EU for broadcasting by preventing broadcasters from being subject to double regulation (in country where the content is produced and then again in the country where it is broadcast). Under the directive, content is only regulated in its 'country of origin'.
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How and why is the Directive being reviewed?
Although largely viewed as a successful directive, the existing TVWF Directive has now become outdated. The convergence of broadcast and telecoms technologies has changed the way that television services are consumed and new services, where programmes are delivered 'on-demand' to consumers such as IPTV (television delivered over the internet) or mobile TV, are beginning to emerge.
At the same time, the advertising model that has sustained non-publicly funded television for many decades is increasingly being challenged, and changes to the directive are needed to ensure that broadcasters have access to the new funding streams needed to allow quality programming to continue.
The European Commission released it’s proposal for a new Directive at the end of 2005. This proposal was debated by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers throughout 2006 and will continue into 2007, although it will not come into play until at least 2010.
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Why is the review important for the BSG community?
The review has caused huge interest in the digital media and technology world because the revised directive will extend rules which previously applied to ‘traditional television’ to new forms of online, on-demand audiovisual media – a huge growth area.
Among other key amendments, the Commission’s original proposal suggested extending regulation to all 'audiovisual media services'. This new definition would have included a huge number of services that are currently emerging or are yet to emerge – IPTV, mobile TV, through to video blogs and other user generated content. These services would have a range of obligations placed on them relating to consumer protection and advertising.
The proposed changes are therefore of key importance to all those involved in converging media and serious concerns are being voiced across technology, new media, broadcasting, advertising and telecoms sectors. Many in these sectors feared that the Commission's original proposal would be unworkable because of broad and ambiguous definitions, and that it would create legal uncertainty by directly overlapping with other legislation, notably the eCommerce Directive. Many also argued that protecting consumers in the on-demand world is more effectively achieved through self- and co-regulation.
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| Other relevant pages on the BSG website
BSG co-ordinated UK Cross-industry paper on Commission's TVWF Proposal -
April 2005
BSG press release 18/04/06 - Media and telecoms players unite against new AV directive
BSG Co- and Self-Regulatory Forum - November 2005
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Useful external links on this subject
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