Brussels, 07/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - At a proposal by Viviane Reding, the European Commission adopted, on 7 January, a report on application of the Television without Frontiers Directive (adopted in 1989 and amended in 1997), accompanied by a work programme for 2003 with a view to reviewing the directive. This programme consists in a series of public consultations in Member States and candidate states, which will tackle the following specific themes: - access to events of major importance for society, the promotion of European works, regulation of TV advertising, the protection of minors, and the right to reply. A new theme will be added to the above: the need, or otherwise, to introduce into the directive a "right to short extracts" as exists in several Member States, but under different conditions. The Commission points out that the conclusion of this work programme will coincide with its presentation of a proposal concerning the programme called upon to take over from Media Plus in 2006, as well as with the adoption of an assessment report on the recommendation regarding the protection of minors. Although the conclusions of the work programme should lead the Commission to propose modification to the Television without Frontiers Directive, an audiovisual package will be submitted to the College of Commissioners end 2003 or early 2004.
In its report, the Commission notes that: 1) an ever growing number of channels can be picked up in more than one EU country, mainly via satellite, and yet the behaviour of the average televiewer changes very little (above all, the viewing public remains faithful to a limited number of channels, and the respective market shares for public and private channels remains stable); 2) overland digital television in the EU is not widespread, whereas digital reception by satellite is making headway with over 19 million households connected out of the 33 million that receive satellite television (49 million households receive cable TV). Furthermore, the Commission stresses the progression during "prime time" of the diffusion of national televised fiction and of "reality shows" and notes that the EU's trade gap with the United States on the broadcasting rights market was $4 billion in 2000 (8 billion for all audiovisual services). The report specifies that the turnover of radio-television in the EU, in 2000, was around EUR 62 billion.
The Commission considers implementation of the Television without Frontiers Directive by the Member States to be very satisfactory, mainly concerning the establishment of lists of major events for society (sport, for example), or the protection of minors. However, further to complaints from consumer associations, the Commission has commissioned a study on the new techniques used in televised advertising.