| EC publishes Reviewed Broadcasting Communication – 02/07/2009 |
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On July 2nd, 2009, The European Commission (EC) published a reviewed Communication on the application of State aid rules to public service broadcasting. The Communication now provides a clearer framework for the development of public broadcasting services and enhances legal certainty for investment by public and private media alike. It is a review of the Communication of 2001 that started in January 2008 with a first public consultation. Two more consultations followed, launched in November 2008 and in April 2009. This review was launched due to a clear need for an update of the former version of the Broadcasting Communication: technology has evolved and there were many cases released which had clarified concepts in the area of state aid to public broadcasting (at least 20 cases by the EC). European public broadcasters indeed receive more than €22 billion annually from licence fees or direct government aid, placing them in third place, after agriculture and transport companies, among recipients of state aid. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that public broadcasters can now take advantage of new technologies without distorting competition with private broadcasters. Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding added that the Communication will give additional legal certainty to the media sector. For commercially-funded radios, amongst the most important modifications brought by this review, one can underline the following: • Clarification of the scope of this Communication: “For the purpose of the present communication, the notion ‘audiovisual service(s)’ refers to the linear and/or non linear distribution of audio- and/or audiovisual content and of other neighbouring services such as on-line text based information services” • The ex-ante control of significant new services launched by public service broadcasters. Public broadcasters may use State aid to provide audiovisual services over new distribution platforms. In order to ensure that the public funding of significant new audiovisual services does not distort trade and competition to an extent contrary to the common interest, Member States (MS) shall ensure that an independent body assesses the overall impact of a new service on the market (with inter alia a public consultation) • Public broadcasters should also comply with quality requirements: quoting the European Court of Justice, the Communication states that these qualitative criteria are "the justification for the existence of broadcasting SGEIs in the national audiovisual sector". There is "no reason for a widely defined broadcasting SGEI which sacrifices compliance with those qualitative requirements in order to adopt the conduct of a commercial operator”. In that sense, a manifest error in the definition of the public broadcaster’s remit would occur if it included inter alia “the use of premium rate numbers in prize games” • More effective control of overcompensation and supervision of the public service mission on the national level. The amount of public compensation should not exceed the net costs of the public service mission. MS shall provide for appropriate mechanisms to ensure that there is no over-compensation. Those mechanisms are to be carried out by an external body independent from the public service broadcaster at regular intervals (yearly). The notions are clearer in the new text. Links: To access the 2001 Broadcasting Communication, please click here. To access the press release announcing the publication of the Communication, please click here. To access the 2009 Broadcasting Communication, please click here. To access a joint press release of AER, ACT, ENPA, EPC and VPRT, please click here. |
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