Strasbourg, 18/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - Last Week, the European Parliament adopted the first reading co-decision report by Ruth Hieronymi (EPP-ED), coming out unequivocally in favour of changes to the current “Television without frontiers” directive. The text adopted in Strasbourg was sufficiently close to the broad lines of the Council's position of 13 November (see EUROPE 9306) to make it likely that the text will be adopted definitively under German Presidency, although relative caution has to be exercised on this. The texts adopted by the two co-legislators differ in two key points: the independence of watchdogs and product placement.
For the remainder, MEPs backed widening the scope of the current directive to non-linear services, such as video downloads, with the consequence that the reviewed directive would be called “Audiovisual without frontiers”. There would be ethical rules, particularly to protect children, to be applied to all media. MEPs also aligned themselves with the Council position on quotas of European programmes broadcast: the status quo remains in order to protect cultural diversity. Debate, however, was more polemical on advertising rules, but ultimately, the Parliament came into line with the Council's general thrust which provides for advertising breaks once for every scheduled period of 30 minutes, compared with 45 as at present. The Socialist group, in particular, wished to keep to 45 minutes, but the majority felt the maximum time limit of 12 minutes of advertising per hour was a sufficient safeguard against American-style television.
The Council decided to ban product placement, a practice which consists of providing products (cars, watches, designer clothes etc.) free of charge so that they benefit from indirect advertising, while leaving it up to Member States to authorise it, except in children's programmes. On this point, the Parliament backed an amendment by the rapporteur, more flexible than the Council's corresponding arrangements. This amendment authorises product placement in a limited number of programmes and only under strict conditions. Product placement will not be allowed in “news and current affairs programmes, children's programmes, documentaries and programmes of advice”. In general terms, “product integration and thematic placement” will be banned. Member States will, however, still be able to authorise it “in cinematographic works, films and series made for television and sports broadcasts”, as well as in cases of “production props where no payment is made but certain goods or services are merely provided free of charge with a view to their inclusion in a programme”. However, even if authorised, the content and scheduling of programmes that feature product placement should never affect “the responsibility and editorial independence” of the broadcaster, nor should they “directly encourage the purchase or rental of goods or services” or give “undue prominence to the product in question”. “Editorial responsibility” is the professional responsibility for programming or compiling programmes for broadcast to the general public. It seeks to broadcast the media content within an established programme schedule or allow it to be ordered from a catalogue. Finally, viewers should be clearly informed about the product placement “at the start and the end of the programme and by a signal at least every 20 minutes during the programme”. In cases of production props the viewer should also be informed of the use of any such aid “by appropriate means”. MEPs also agreed with the Commission in completely banning the placement of tobacco products or cigarettes. There will be a similar ban on specific medicines or medical treatments available only on prescription in the Member State of the media service provider.
Another area of disagreement between the co-legislators was the independence of the authorities responsible for monitoring the media. Parliament was for full independence, but, in the Council, only Latvia and the Netherlands backed that position.
The ball is now in the Commission's court. Given the general trend in the Council and the EP's opinion, the Commission is due to present a proposal which could reconcile the differing points of view at the start of 2007, perhaps at the Culture Council on 25 May. The compromise endorsed by the Council was backed by all delegations, apart from Sweden, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg and Austria. The Commission, Austria, Germany and Italy also indicated they intended to have statements included in the Council minutes. (ol)