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After the first reading in the European Parliament of the new proposed Television without Frontiers directive, the European Commission has made the new consolidated text public on 9 March 2007 .
The initial proposal was criticized by Internet media specialists and some significant changes were adopted by the European Parliament in December 2006 during the first reading. The changes are now incorporated in the consolidated text presented by the Commission. They include the initial proposal that those non-TV audiovisual services, comprising so-called non-linear or on-demand services, will be made subject to some basic content regulation.
The Commission wants to push the draft directive hoping that it will be adopted by the end of May 2007 by the European Parliament and the Council.
"Thanks to the ambitious work of the European Parliament and the intense efforts of the German Presidency over the past months, Europe's new legal framework for a more competitive, more diverse and more pluralistic audiovisual media sector is now within reach," said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. "I am confident that we will now achieve political agreement on the new "Audiovisual Without Frontiers" Directive by the end of May. Europe's internal market would then be truly open for providers and consumers of audiovisual services by the end of 2008 at the latest."
The text adopted by the Parliament is still subject to criticism, especially on the lack of clarity of the definitions of the commercial TV-like services on the Internet. A report of the UK European Union Committee of theHouse of Lords considered that the regulation might be wrongly applied to other contents such as that of blogs. The report warned that the Directive might cause production companies outside of the EU to try and escape the regulation, considering UK will be one of the main victims of this action.
Boosting the Diversity of European TV- and On-Demand services: Commission
paves the way for the new Directive "Audiovisual without
Frontiers"(9.03.2007)
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/311&...
Draft Audiovisual Media Services Directive - Consolidated text (8.03.2007)
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/avpolicy/docs/reg/modernisation/proposal_2005...
EDRI-gram: House of Lords produces report against the AVMS directive
(14.02.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.3/avms
EDRI-gram: New Audiovisual Directive: First Reading in EU Parliament
completed (20.12.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.24/avms