The European Union is about to put in place new rules governing audiovisual content, to be in place from 2020 onwards and including content broadcast live on social media. In the afternoon of Thursday 26 April, the representatives of the European Parliament and the Council reached informal agreement of the draft directive presented two years earlier.
At a press conference, Parliament negotiators Sabine Verheyen and Petra Kammerevert said that some technical issues would still have to be fine-tuned. The major points, however, had been settled, they said. A final trialogue meeting is scheduled for the start of June.
The informal agreement resolved the issues still outstanding: the inclusion of live streaming and financial contributions. On the first of these issues, the European Parliament was successful in having live broadcasting on video-sharing platforms covered by the news directive. In exchange, the Council could have won financial contributions: as video-on-demand platforms, linear services will contribute financially to the development of European audiovisual productions through a direct investment in the content or a contribution to national funds. This provision is, however, not fully acquired: "We agreed on a direction, but the terms of the agreement must still be specified" indicates a source. The agreement stipulates that the level of contributions should be in proportion with the profits made in the country.
The new rules on advertising are more flexible than those currently in place: following a proposal from the Commission, the co-legislators have replaced the current hourly limit with a limit over two distinct periods. They decided to restrict the proportion of advertising to 20% (with a minimum of 30 minutes between advert breaks) between 6am and 6pm and between 6pm and midnight. The Commission suggested allowing advert breaks every 20 minutes with advertising allowed to form up to 20% of broadcast time between 7am and 11pm. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)