EU - The way ahead for the Broadcasting Communication

(RAPID)
Speech by Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition Policy, Broadcasting conference, Strasbourg, 17 July 2008

Labels: Audiovisual, Competition

FR - Sarkozy looking to build national media champion

(IHT)
When President Nicolas Sarkozy announced in January that he would ban commercials from public television, it took only moments for the share price of private broadcasters to react. It was also the first hint that behind a profound and controversial shake-up of the French public television sector loomed a much larger vision - one involving private media companies, some of Sarkozy's closest friends in the business and a long-held ambition of the president to groom that special breed of company he had already created in other industries: the national champion.There is no French multimedia empire comparable to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. or Bertelsmann of Germany, which own newspapers, television channels and radio interests and Internet ventures worldwide. And there is no French equivalent of British Broadcasting Corp., with an international reputation and no advertising pressures.

Labels: Audiovisual

EU - State aid for broadcasting

(RAPID)
Speech by Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition Policy, Medienforum, Cologne, 9th June 2008

Labels: Audiovisual, Competition

UK - Call for controls on BBC website

(BBC)
There should be tighter controls on the management of the BBC's website - in part to prevent it stifling commercial rivals, the BBC Trust has said. After reviewing bbc.co.uk, the trust said it was "an excellent service" but that its content had to be different from that on rival websites. And it criticised the site's management for a £3.5m overspend last year.

Labels: Audiovisual, Competition

EU-funded films sweep up the prestigious Palme d'0r and Grand Prize at Cannes

(Europa)
Amongst the films receiving honours at the awards ceremony at this year's Cannes Film Festival were 4 films funded by the EU's Media Programme: "Entre Les Murs" directed by Laurent Cantet (France) won the Palme d'Or, whilst "Gomorra" directed by Matteo Garrone (Italy), swept up the Grand Prize of the festival. "Le silence de Lorna" directed by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (Belgium) won the prize for the best scenario, and the film "Tulpan", directed by Sergey Dvortsevoy (Kazahstan) was awarded the Prix Un Certain Regard. These films were amongst the 14 screened at the Festival that had been developed or distributed with support of more than EUR 900 000 from the European Union's MEDIA programme

Labels: Audiovisual

FR - Télévision publique : les acteurs du Net refusent d'être taxés

(ZDNet France)
L'Asic et Renaissance Numérique critiquent vertement le scénario de la Commission Copé qui remet sur la table l'hypothèse d'une taxation des revenus publicitaires des portails internet pour financer l'audiovisuel public. Elles sont d'autant plus virulentes que cette idée est soutenue par les opérateurs télécoms.

Labels: Audiovisual, Taxation

EU - Spain not complying with television advertising restrictions

(RAPID)
The Commission has sent Spain a reasoned opinion for failing to comply with the television advertising rules in the Television without frontiers Directive. The infringement procedure, started in July 2007, is based on a monitoring report that found that the main TV channels in Spain, both publicly funded and commercial, failed regularly and by some margin to restrict advertising and teleshopping spots to 12 minutes per clock hour.

Labels: Audiovisual

EU - Europe funds internet TV standard

(BBC News)
The European Union is spending 14m euros (£10.5m) to create a standard way to send TV via the net. An additional 5m euros (£3.7m) is being contributed to the project by 21 other partners including the BBC and the European Broadcasting Union. The project will create a peer-to-peer system (based on the BitTorrent technology) that can pipe programmes to set-top boxes and home TV sets.

Labels: Audiovisual, Media literacy

EU - Romania to protest cartoon featuring with "suicidal squirrels" to the European Commission

(Associated Press)
A darkly humorous cartoon showing squirrels hanging themselves and throwing themselves in front of cars has drawn the ire of Romanian broadcasting authorities. But Romanian authorities have no control over the cartoon, because it is broadcast on a channel with a British license. The Romanian regulatory body for television broadcasting said it would make an official protest to the European Commission about the one-minute cartoon shown every afternoon on the British-licensed channel AXN.

Labels: Audiovisual, Protection_of_minors

DE - Commission launches public consultation on State funding of public service broadcasting

(RAPID)
The European Commission has published a consultation paper on the future framework which will apply to State funding of public service broadcasting. This consultation gives Member States and stakeholders the opportunity to submit their views at an early stage, before any Commission proposal, on the possible revision of the Broadcasting Communication. Comments should be submitted by 10 March 2008. Having reviewed the comments, the Commission may come forward later this year with a proposal for a revised Broadcasting Communication, with a view to its adoption in the first half of 2009.

Labels: Audiovisual, Competition

EU - Sarkozy proposes new internet tax

(BBC)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed new taxes on internet access and mobile phone use. The new taxes would help fund France's two public television channels, which would be free of advertising. There would also be a levy on the advertising revenue made by France's private broadcasters.

Labels: Audiovisual, Taxation

EU - Audiovisual Media Services Directive

(Eur-Lex)
Directive 2007/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2007 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 OJ L 332, 18.12.2007, p. 27?45.

Labels: Audiovisual

EU - Audiovisual Media Services Directive is passed

(OUT-LAW News)
A new Directive that will regulate TV advertising and product placement across the EU was passed by the European Parliament. The Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive will cover internet TV and on-demand services. Member States now have two years to make the Directive national law. It replaces the 1997 TV Without Frontiers Directive. The rules do not apply to private websites. They cover an "audiovisual media service" that is "under the editorial responsibility of a media service provider". Editorial responsibility requires "effective control both over the selection of the programmes and over their organisation either in a chronological schedule, in the case of television broadcasts, or in a catalogue, in the case of on-demand audiovisual media services." A site like YouTube will not be caught by the rules. TV programmes offered 'on demand' from the internet will be covered by rules concerning protection of minors and product placement though not rules concerning the amount of time allowed for advertising.

Labels: Audiovisual

EU - EP Culture and Education Committee endorses new TV advertising rules

(EP)
New EU rules on TV advertising and product placement could be adopted before Christmas, as the Council common position on these rules, already negotiated with Parliament, was officially approved by Committee on Culture and Education on the evening of Monday 12 November. Parliament is to take its final plenary vote on the text, which the Committee did not change, in Brussels on 29 November

Labels: Audiovisual

EU - Le nouveau contexte des médias audiovisuels – tendances et enjeux publics

(RAPID)
Discours de Viviane Reding, Membre de la Commission européenne responsable de la Société de l'Information et des Médias. Colloque international pour les 10 ans du Conseil supérieur de l´audiovisuel de la Communauté française de Belgique. Bruxelles, le 21 septembre 2007

Labels: Audiovisual

UK - C4 phone line move to cost it £3m

(FT)
Channel 4 has responded to a spate of scandals over premium rate phone lines by announcing that it would no longer seek to make a profit from them ? a decision that will deal a huge financial blow to the broadcaster. In a statement, Channel 4 said the move was an attempt to regain the trust of its audience and played down the financial impact, saying that it would cost the company only £3m in the current financial year. In fact, in the last full financial year, PRTS contributed "more than £10m" to overall pre-tax profits of £21.3m.

Labels: Audiovisual, Consumer_protection

UK - Phone-ins - Regaining viewers? trust is the real issue

(FT)
Despite a breakdown in trust and an outbreak of "format fatigue" over Big Brother, there is no end in sight for interactive "reality" television, two leading broadcasters have told the FT. With Channel 4 announcing last week that it would stop using premium-rate telephone services for profit and ITV awaiting the outcome of a report into its phone-ins, the reliance of commercial television on participatory programming is under the spotlight.

Labels: Audiovisual, Consumer_protection

EU - Ministers commit to a vibrant European audiovisual sector without frontiers at Cannes

(RAPID)
EU Ministers for Culture gathered at the Cannes International Film Festival to pledge their support for Europe's audiovisual industry at a time when it faces unprecedented change, driven largely by the impact of digital technologies and the resulting change in audience behaviour. The EU Ministers' commitment to the audiovisual sector was underlined by their adoption in yesterday's meeting of the Culture Council, of the Audiovisual Media Services without frontiers directive (see IP/07/706). This will modernise the rules for traditional and emerging audiovisual media services in response to technological change and gives more flexibility to European TV- and filmmakers to produce digital content thanks to more relaxed advertising rules. See also Presenting the new Audiovisual Media Services without frontiers Directive: Frequently asked questions

Labels: Audiovisual

EU - Agreement expected on "Audiovisual Media Services without frontiers" Directive

(RAPID)
The EU "Education, Youth Affairs and Culture" Council will meet on 24-25 May 2007 in Brussels. For the audiovisual and media items on the agenda on 24 May, the Commission will be represented by Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media. At this Council, political agreement is expected on one of the priorities of the Commission and of the German Presidency: the Audiovisual Media Services without frontiers (AVMS) Directive.

Labels: Audiovisual