Brussels, 30/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - In a resolution adopted last week, the Parliament recommends that public service broadcasters should be both independent and adequately funded (see EUROPE 10264). The Parliament's text caused a strong reaction from the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT) and from the European Newspaper Publishers' Association (ENPA), which call for greater transparency in the attribution of state aid to public service broadcasters so that these do not make discriminatory use of subsidies in their own interest. In particular:
ACT welcomes the wide choice of programmes available to the public thanks to the combined offer from public service and commercial broadcasters. Nonetheless, it wishes to make sure that, in the ongoing process of digitalisation, all broadcasters can compete on an equal footing. According to commercial television, the Ivo Belet report gives no evidence of under-funding of public broadcasters that receive, on the contrary, considerable state aid in the EU with €25 billion allocated to them on average annually. In their view, there is a lack of transparency regarding the mechanism for allocating state aid to public service broadcasters. Such aid, which is to be used for public service missions, is, they say, partly used for commercial purposes (mainly in Ireland, France, Croatia and Portugal), which leads to an unfair competitive situation with commercial broadcasters, ACT complains.
EBPA also calls for vigilance to ensure that the online activity of public service broadcasters does not compete unfairly with the online services provided by newspapers online. Enormous investment by the latter to develop online services must not be threatened by the digitalisation of public broadcasters supported by state aid, which sometimes go beyond the public service mission for which such aid is intended, ENPA underlines. According to the European Newspaper Publishers' Association, particular vigilance is essential regarding the application of European competition and state aid rules. The dividing line between public service and commercial services is too often confused, with public service broadcasters using their preferential position to impose their presence on the online advertising market, at the expense of private sector newspapers, ENPA stresses. Proceeds from advertising are vitally important to ensure the survival and independence of newspapers. (I.L./transl.jl)