Brussels, 30/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - MEPs voting on Thursday 29 November have by a large majority adopted a joint position at which the Parliament, represented by Ruth Hieronymi (EPP-ED group, Germany), and the members of the Council arrived at the directive on audiovisual media services. This directive is to replace the “television without borders” directive of 1997, which has become obsolete given the rapid changes in the European audiovisual landscape. The new directive sets minimum joint rules to be respected in the areas of the promotion of European and independent works, broadcasting of events of major importance, advertising and protection of minors. It will not apply to private internet sites and only some of the minimum rules will apply to on-demand television services. Among the innovations are provisions on “product placement”, which were the most controversial. This will only be allowed in a limited range of programmes and under strict conditions. The EP has stipulated that a message should appear at the beginning of any programme containing product placement, as well as at the end and after any commercial breaks. Overall, these will only be allowed once every 30 minutes in cinematic works and new programmes, and banned in programmes for children, except where these exceed 30 minutes. The maximum time allowed will by 12 minutes per hour, and the member states can impose even stricter rules. They should also encourage audiovisual service providers to develop codes of conduct for children in order to raise their awareness of harmful advertising, for example adverts encouraging them to eat foods which are high in fat, salt and sugar. The member states should also promote European works through co-productions or purchasing such works, and reserve an appropriate amount of space for them in the schedules. This is designed to extend a provision which already exists for traditional television channels with new services, with a minimum of 10% for independent productions. Each country will also be obliged to ensure that events of major importance benefit from exclusive broadcast, but can themselves define which events fall into that category. Nonetheless, they must ensure that all European broadcasters have free access to extracts for information purposes. The new rules were the subject of a first reading in December 2006. Negotiations were subsequently held between the EP and the Council and a political agreement was reached in May 2007 before its official adoption by the Council on 15 October and by the EP culture committee on 12 November. The directive will be published in the Official Journal before the end of the year for transposition into national law by the end of 2009. (I.L.)