Mrs Reding to TV: I Cannot Protect You From Competition

It's doubtless that Commissioner Reding has learned that moving Europe’s commercial broadcasters in one direction is as hopeless as herding cats – or MEPs. Her call at the “high level” meeting of the Association of Commercial Television (ACT) focused on the tabled proposal updating the Television Without Frontiers Directive (TVFW).

“Nobody seems to like it,” she said, begging the obvious. “It’s attacked in the European Parliament and member states and by the print media.”

Indeed, it is. And don’t forget on-line media producers and suppliers. They don’t like facing the possibility of falling under even the “lightest touch” of EU rules.

ftm background

Media Sighs Relief At Services Directive Exclusion
The latest draft passed the European Parliament after amendments ripped out the hotly contested “country of origin” principle. The audiovisual sector was excluded – along with gambling and public healthcare. Europe’s media organizations breathed a palpable sigh of relief.

Mrs Reding’s Holiday Gifts For All
EC Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding revealed to the Commission and the world the long awaited and debated proposal for Audiovisual Media Without Frontiers, the Directive set to replace the technologically worn and torn TV Without Frontiers.

EC Audiovisual Conference Debates New Media Rules
The European Union’s main policy experts, regulators, broadcasters, legislators along with industry and employees associations will gather in Liverpool to “facilitate expert discussion of the revision of the Television Without Frontiers Directive.”

Stealth Ads Cause “Scandal” at German TV
The German term for product placement is “schleichwerbung,” and the director of one of the country’s largest public broadcasters calls it “the plague.”

EC Says Rights Are in the Hand of the Holder
The European Commission sent media people off on summer holidays with a little light beach reading.

But product placement, favored by Commissioner Reding, threatens to bring TVWF reform to a screeching halt. Constituents ranging from consumer to journalist advocates fear an impending – and irrevocable – breach in the line between editorial and commercial content. And every sort of ad-skeptic has joined in the chorus, including UK media regulator OFCOM, which bans product placement.

“I would like to make it very clear that I need your support in this and so far I have not seen much of it,” she implored.

Advertiser groups “warmly greeted” the product placement provisions in the TVWF proposal when announced last December. But they were clearly more interested, in agreement with commercial television operators, in fighting about ads in childrens’ programs, which the new proposal would send to the dust-bin of European ad history.

Commissioner Reding shares with television broadcasters the real fear that the advertising model providing free-to-air TV might be slipping into that same dust-bin. TIVO and similar devices allow uncaring viewers to skip ads. Mobile phone operators are hustling to offer TV to the handset, even bidding on TV rights. Some advertisers are playing with the idea of their own cable TV channels: all product placement – all the time.

Asking free-to-air broadcasters to rethink the advertising business model has become a common, if not rather academic request. If not advertising, what? Subscription and pay-per-view revenue streams are untested in the broad market. Anyway, TVWF and other EU rules enshrine free-to-air TV, at least in principle.

“You must understand,” concluded Commissioner Reding, “that you cannot expect policy makers to protect you from competition. What we can do is to create the best possible starting conditions for fair competition and sound business models. But it is up to you to rethink your business model for the convergent media world and to take advantage of your know-how as regards competitive audiovisual content.”

Commissioner Reding to TV: I Cannot Protect You From Competition

European commercial televisions executives, gathered in Brussels, heard DG Info Society and Media Commissioner Vivaine Reding talk bluntly about survival.