Mrs Reding’s Holiday Gifts For All

Negotiations among the various constituents, carrying on until the last minute, provide a bit of something for everybody, and all very media business friendly.

ftm background

Convergence is Here!!
EC media commissioner Viviane Reding spells out a delicate vision for moving forward, and every other direction.

The EU Looks Like Making TV Happy By Allowing Product Placement Within Strict Rules
Product placement is worth about $2 billion a year to US television and allegedly it’s worth $0 in the European Union, because it is prohibited for the most part. That European exclusion may soon come to an end, but with restrictions so the public knows what is going on.

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

Greatly liberalized advertising rules should send media stocks soaring this week. Away goes the old rule about separating ads by a restrictive number of minutes, though 12 minutes per hour remains the maximum. And here comes product placement. Thought to be worth billions, broadcasters will be able to take money for placing products in TV programs, except news, children’s programs and religious programs. Any product placement must be disclosed somewhere in the program. Prescription drugs and alcohol product placement is out; otherwise, alcohol ads are in. Tobacco ads are still OUT, everywhere and all the time.

The oft-touted “lighter touch” toward media regulation was reserved for on-line, on-demand “non-linear” services. Mrs Reding pointed out that video on-demand suppliers currently and overwhelmingly are subjected to contradictory national regulations. Non-linear services will be exempt from cultural diversity rules, which remain in effect for linear – scheduled – services. Newspapers and magazines, and even their websites, are, along with radio and audio services, ne touche pas.

National media regulators, some at least, received in even stronger terms the blessing of independence. It is expected that national regulators are free from political influence, have the power to award broadcasting licenses, ensure compliance with national and EC rules and do all of that transparently. That may come of a bit of a shock to governments recently intent on politicizing national media behavior. And, subject to some interpretation, the same rules must apply to both public and private broadcasters.

Clarified, finally, are rules on “short reporting.” Previously TVWF allowed countries to designate certain events of national importance exempt from rights bidding, intending to preserve free-to-air access. These events included, obviously, big football matches. Sports franchises as rights grantors have taken great care to prevent even on-the-spot news coverage of their events without payment of fees. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) comes to mind. The new Directive proposes a 90 second rule, allowing all broadcasters access to reports from events as part of news services.

Like all good holiday messages, Mrs Reding called for harmony. National media rules must be harmonized – like a good choir – to ensure that a broadcaster with legal origin in one country need not face different rules and restrictions in providing those services in other countries. If all done in harmony, Mrs Reding said national and EU media rules would add to a productive European audiovisual sector.

The legislative proposal is now submitted to the European Parliament. After more than three years in revising, TVWF still faces years of debate.

German Private Broadcasters Critical of TV Rules Draft - December 15, 2005

The (German) Private Broadcast and Telecom Association (Verband Privater Rundfunk und Telekommunikation – VPRT) reacted with criticism and restraint to the proposal of the European Commission on the revision of the European Commission television guidelines, presented today in Brussels. So far the released draft shows good beginnings; the coming revision will conform to the prevailing needs of the TV industry by canceling the block advertising and spacing requirements for most program formats. The planned regulations on product placement are also welcomed, against the background of currently unequal international competition. On other points, however, the draft clearly remains backward for the requirements of a future-enabled European media market.

"There is no alternative to further reform of the legal framework.," said VPRT president Juergen Doetz. "The European media industry needs a substantially more liberal legal framework, in order to meet the future.

“Where the previous regulations are to be adapted, we see good beginnings, as with longitudinal controls and the regulation of single spots,” said VPRT vice-president for television Dr. Tobias Schmid. Other parts, such as the hourly maximum or the interruption possibilities with films and TV movies are not only fall short of our expectations, but also fall short of economic requirements.

VPRT is critical that existing competitive disadvantages of television, compared with other media, are not corrected. With this new draft television remains the most heavily regulated medium. The hourly 12 minute advertising time limit must be abolished.

VPRT sees the introduction of short reporting rights Europe-wide as ignoring the position of television rights holders.This by-passes rights holders license agreements and endangers the sensitive equilibrium in the sports rights market. German Inter-State broadcast rules already allow a right to short reporting, which works well in practice.

VPRT members in multimedia enterprises criticize in particular the expansion of European Union television guidelines suggested by the European Commission leading to greater regulation. “This completely unnecessary high regulation on certain electronic media, such as production quotas and expanded handicaps on sponsoring in nonlinear services, limits the competitive ability of the European multimedia industry,” said VPRT vice-president for multimedia Dr. Marcus Englert.

Compared to the previous legal situation, the linear / nonlinear designation creates gray areas in application and legal insecurity for the enterprises concerned.” The development of new multimedia offers is obstructed by the expansion and the unclear definitions since they cannot react flexibly to the market tendency as before.

VPRT: Commission draft endangers competitive ability of the European audiovisual media industry.

It becomes clear that the European Commission’s resolutions for the television directive revision are less than the announced liberalization. Abolishing the block advertising requirement is not fixed and single spots allowed on in exceptional cases. Advertising possibilities in children’s programming, news and films are to be limited.

"The European Commission’s tabled draft is a sharp setback for liberalizing advertising regulation and for the competitive ability of European audiovisual industry,” said VPRT vice-president for television Dr. Tobias Schmid. The Commission remains far behind our expectations, and their past announcements. We will continue our dialogue with the EU parliamentarians in the parliament consultation so that the threatened economic damage for Europe can still be reversed. More flexibility, not less, must form the framework for European electronic media in the future."

Contrary to previous announcements, this European Commission proposal permits single spots only in sports broadcasts, except in exceptional cases. "This contradicts what our viewers wish", said Schmid. Viewers prefer shorter spots over advertising blocks. Furthermore, single spot ads can be integrated into programs more viewer-friendly. This creates a genuine increase in value for viewers. At the same time, there are compelling economic reasons for modernizing advertising if the various free TV offers are to continue in the digital age.

AER Welcomes Exclusion of Radio - December 15, 2005

“The Commission took the right decision in excluding radio from the scope of this Directive” says Association of European Radio (AER) President Christer Jungeryd. “In spite of technological developments, the reality today is that radio continues to be highly regulated at national level and broadcasting principally directed to national, regional and local audiences. There are little or no Internal Market implications. “TVWF-like” regulation is not necessary and would provide no added-value to the industry.”

AER agrees with the European Commission that the radio landscape will change dramatically in the next decade but that the effects of today’s and tomorrow’s digital developments are anything but clear. The migration to digital for radio is highly complex - possibly even more than for TV - and it is a matter for national authorities to provide the appropriate regulatory frameworks and incentives for a smooth transition to take place.

In plans to build an Information Society for All, AER calls on Commissioner Viviane Reding to remain attentive to RADIO in particular with regard to its spectrum needs in the framework of digital migration. We urge her to help ensure that RADIO - as a loved and trusted audiovisual mass medium - remains a visible, audible and vibrant part of the Europe’s audiovisual landscape.

TVWF Proposal “falls short of expectations,” says egta – December 15, 2005

Over recent years, egta, the association of television and radio sales houses, has been calling for a modernization of the television advertising rules and takes note of the Commission’s proposal to revise the 1989 ‘Television Without Frontiers’ directive.

Although the Commission seems to acknowledge the need to streamline the existing regulatory framework on advertising, this proposal falls short of expectations and does not address the real challenge of the right of EU citizens to have free access to a wide variety of television programs.

Among the proposed changes to the rules on television advertising, egta supports the modernization of the provisions on teleshopping, the preservation of current qualitative rules on television advertising in a linear environment and the legalization of product placement with identification requirements.

However, egta is seriously concerned by two proposed provisions that mark significant steps backwards as compared to the 1989 legislation whereas the television advertising market has changed.

1 - The stringent rule governing the insertion of advertising breaks within the broadcasting of cinematographic works, TV films, news and current affairs programs and children programs (article 11) will have damaging effects on the financing of such programs. Without more flexibility, not only sales houses cannot optimize the planning of advertising breaks but they also cannot improve the viewing quality to the benefit of citizens.

2 – The maintenance of “isolated spots” as an exception (article 10) leads to long tunnels of advertising, which are not satisfactory both for advertisers and viewers. Egta believes this archaic provision should be removed if one wishes to maintain the present revenue stream and the sustainable financing of free-to-air broadcasters.

For egta, the proposal to revise the current rules on television advertising is a very limited step in the right direction. Egta calls on Members of the European Parliament and governments of EU Member States to seek significant improvements to this text in order to meet tomorrow’s challenges.

European Broadcasting Union welcomes TVWF “extended scope” – December 15, 2005

The EBU welcomes the Commission's proposal to extend the scope of the "Television Without Frontiers Directive" beyond television broadcasting to all audiovisual media services.

This approach takes account of the new environment where audiovisual services are increasingly delivered in many different ways, for example over broadband TV, the Internet or mobile platforms. Indeed, the members of the European Broadcasting Union themselves actively offer services on different platforms.

It will also enable ''non-linear' (e.g. on-demand) service providers to benefit from the country-of-origin principle, which remains the core of the Directive. This will, in turn, result in increased legal certainty and a better functioning of the Internal Market.

European Publishers Council “fears allayed” by Directive proposal. But… - December 15, 2005

Earlier fears by the European Publishers Council (EPC) that new content rules for audiovisual media content could apply to online versions of their newspapers and magazines containing video-clips seem to have been allayed by explicit exclusion of these services in an important Recital.

"The EPC welcomes the important recognition by the Commission of the need to keep the press clear of media-specific regulation, whether in print or online. We will be calling on the Parliament to confirm that online versions of newspapers and magazines will not fall within the scope of this Directive in line with this crucial Recital," said Executive Director of the European Publishers Council Angela Mills Wade.

Another important recital was welcomed by the EPC which carves out further many text and image based websites saying that the definition of "audiovisual media service" also excludes all services not intended for the distribution of audiovisual content, i.e. "where any audiovisual content is merely incidental to the service and not its principal purpose."

However, as websites develop and enhance their content services with video over the next few years, the EPC in line with the online community more generally fears inevitably there will be confusion as to what is or is not within scope for many information society services, who are already covered by the E-Commerce directive and other horizontal Community directives.

The EPC also welcomes the introduction by the Commission of an important new tool in news provision in the information society age, through a new right to short news reports.

EPC has been hoping for a greater role for self-regulation in the new directive but fears that consumerist and health related lobbies have won major concessions in the area of strict advertising content regulation as the price for their approval for the country of origin principle and reductions in quantitative restrictions of advertising on TV, leaving no room for meaningful advertising self-regulation.