Brussels, 04/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - By 31 December 2009, all of the member states should have transposed the directive on audiovisual media services (DSMAV), which was adopted in December 2007 to replace the former television without borders directive, into their national legislation. With less than two months to go until the deadline, what is the state of progress with the application process and what are the problems the national legislators have faced? The European Commission (DG INFSO) and the European Audiovisual Observatory (OBS) held a seminar on Tuesday 3 November to sketch out the outlines of the audiovisual landscape by early 2010.
So far, only three countries have transposed the new directive: Belgium, France and Ireland. The other member states are at various stages of the process, but overall it has been very slow and chaotic as there are many criteria to satisfy and it has been necessary to carry out a specific definition of certain provisions of the directive (the one on the promotion of non-linear works is subject to interpretation and different approaches by the member states are possible) against an ever-changing backdrop, stressed Susanne Nikoltchev of the OBS. "They are faced with real challenges", she concluded. After this legal analysis, André Lange, also of the OBS, sketched out an initial overview of on-demand audiovisual services in Europe. His observation was quite simple: it is hard to describe this market today, due to several factors: the sector is evolving and changing all the time, it is highly fragmented and lacks transparency, and there is no monitoring at national level to give us a reliable overview. Venturing a few forecasts on the development of the on-demand audiovisual services market in Europe, Screen Digest analyst Guy Bisson presented an image of interactive hybrid television bearing little resemblance to the traditional model, but which will continue on the road to success, as viewers prefer to watch attractive classic programmes such as films on a television screen rather than on a computer.
The director of DG INFSO of the European Commission, Gregory Paulger, who had also been invited to the meeting, stressed the need to develop a legal cross-border range of services to fight against piracy, which endangers the promising market of on-demand audiovisual services in Europe. A public consultation on on-line services, carried out jointly by Commissioners Viviane Reding (information society and media) and Charlie McCreevy (internal market) is currently underway and will close on 5 January 2010. The aim is to go into greater depth in the debate to create a flourishing market for on-line communications, he stressed. (I.L./transl./fl)