Brussels, 04/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 4 November, the European Commission published a draft communication setting out the rules it intends to apply to the funding, by the state, of public broadcasting services. These rules relate, in the first instance, to the increased room for manoeuvre allowed to public broadcasting bodies to meet the challenges of the new media environment, the definition of the public service mission by member states, and national monitoring of these services. Interested parties, including member states, have until 15 January to submit their comments.
The current communication on broadcasting dates from 2001, and does not cover the new technologies and services available today, according to Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. In the past, Kroes has described this communication as being worthy of the 1950s. The new proposals have not been welcomed by the public broadcasters who might be affected. “If this extremely detailed version of the Broadcasting Communication were adopted, it could seriously reduce the scope for member states to grant public service broadcasters a significant role in the information society,” said Jean Réveillon, Director General of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The EBU is against member states' calling for a market impact assessment for each new service provided by public broadcasters, as is suggested in the proposed text. “This procedure would severely limit member states' potential to adapt public broadcasters' remits in the light of technological developments and in order to better serve the public,” the EBU said in a press release issued on Tuesday. The procedure in question would affect in particular public broadcasters' online services, said Ross Biggam, Director General of the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT). He says that the rules have to be updated. “We couldn't have foreseen, at the end of the 90s (when the 2001 communication was being prepared: Ed.), that public service broadcasters would start launching pay-TV channels,” he said. He also cited the example of BBC regional internet sites, which are no longer in competition with national commercial channels, but with regional newspapers. Given the emergence of these new competition dynamics, the Commission has “identified the right questions,” Biggam said. As for responses, he underlined that the Commission still had to overcome resistance from member states, whose authorities often defend the interests of their public broadcasters. The draft communication on broadcasting and the explanatory note accompanying it are available at http: //ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/state_aid/reform/reform.cfm. An initial consultation exercise on the general principles of the re-assessment was held between January and March 2008 (see EUROPE 9577). (C.D./transl.rt)