REGULATING THE MEDIA:
WHAT ROLE FOR THE EU?
European Parliament
17 October 2006
Chris Banatvala
Director of Standards
Ofcom
©Ofcom
Media policy: a national or a European issue?
Media policy is primarily a national issue…
• Competence in the domain of culture lies within the Member States
• Media policy is linked with national cultural and public interest concerns
• Media audiences are largely national
• Member States have exclusive competence for: licensing, spectrum planning,
media pluralism and the definition of the public service remit
• National regulators best placed to monitor and enforce rules
©Ofcom
1
Media policy: a national or a European issue?
But the European Union has powers:
• Single Market: broadcasting is a service  basis for the TVWF Directive
• Competition law  Mergers in the media sector, state aid
• EU initiatives in other areas of competence (electronic communications, spectrum,
copyright) have an impact on national media policies
And responsibilities:
• Article 151.4 EC Treaty: “The Community shall take cultural aspects into
account in its action under other provisions of this Treaty, in particular in order to
respect and to promote the diversity of its cultures”
©Ofcom
2
What goals for media regulation?
Primarily at national level:
•
•
•
•
•
Freedom of expression and political participation
Consumer protection (in particular protection of minors and human dignity)
Quality of content and choice
Development of competition and technological innovation
Access and universal service
Primarily at EU level:
• Creation of a single market
• Global competitiveness, growth and job creation (Lisbon Agenda)
• Promotion of European works and cultural diversity
 The EU and the Member States must work together to achieve these goals
©Ofcom
3
Benefits of EU regulation in TV broadcasting
Creation of an internal market for broadcasting services
• Increase in choice of services available (from 500 channels in 1989 to more than
1,500 channels today)
• Launch of pan-European services with distinct linguistic versions
• UK (Ofcom) licenses 762 cable and satellite channels (about 57% of EU total).
Protection of consumers from harmful content
• TVWF provisions on protection of minors, human dignity and right of reply
• Soft law initiatives: Recommendation on protection of minors
Promotion of EU cultural diversity
• TVWF on European works (7th implementation report showed that > 60% of
programming time to EU works and > 30% to works by independent producers)
• MEDIA programme
©Ofcom
4
Changing Media Landscape
Changes in the market
•
•
•
•
Multiplicity of delivery technologies (terrestrial, satellite, cable, IP)
Multiple access through different devices (TV, PC, mobile, ipod…)
Wider choice of content and programmes
Development of new services
Changes in consumer behaviour
• Less scheduled viewing (video-on-demand)
• Interactivity and personalisation of content
• Access ‘on the move’
• Users are creating their own content: “user generated media”
• Greater responsibility for media consumption
©Ofcom
5
Regulation for audiovisual sector should deliver
For EU citizens
• Quality of content
• Choice of services
• Protection from harmful and offensive content
• Rights protection (freedom of expression and information, right of reply, privacy)
For EU business
• Regulatory certainty
• Promotion of cross-border services
• Flexibility to adapt business models to changes in technology
• Investment, innovation and creative incentives
• Regulatory consistency and coherence of different legal measures
©Ofcom
6
At the national level, regulators need:
• Clear objectives set out in law
• Rules which are enforceable
• Regulatory discretion and flexibility
• Alternatives to traditional command and control regulation (e.g., self/co-regulation)
• Increased cooperation and coordination between national regulatory authorities
[note: each of the points in the last 2 slides could be more specifically linked to some
of our key objectives in the AVMS debate. I propose to leave them wide and open
and decide whether we want to be more explicit on the day of the seminar, in the
light of the discussion, and taking into account the outcome of the working group
the previous day]
©Ofcom
7