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At the EU's Council of Ministers meeting on 14 November a new version of the Audiovisual Media Services directive has been agreed, that limits the new regulation regarding video on the Internet only to the TV-like services (linear services). The video clips on the Internet will not be subject of this new directive.

The initial version of the Audiovisual Media Services, which is a revision of the 1997 Television without Frontiers (TWF) directive, has been seriously criticized by various players - from the UK government to a number of media scholars that signed the Budapest Declaration for Freedom of the Internet.

The new version agreed by the Council of Ministers, but also by the European Parliament Culture committee introduces the notion of audiovisual media services and distinguishes between television broadcasts ("linear" services" e.g. scheduled broadcasting via traditional TV, the internet or mobile phones, which "pushes" content to viewers) and on-demand services ("non-linear" such as video on-demand, which the viewer "pulls" from a network). In distinguishing between these two categories of audiovisual media services, both the Commission and the Committee have stressed that they are seeking to subject providers of "on demand services" to only a minimum set of rules. Linear services, on the other hand, are more thoroughly regulated.

One of the main supporters of the reduction of the content were the UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. Ofcom will now have to regulate only the TV Internet broadcast from major televisions, but will not include the social networking websites - so popular these days. "Today's outcome is testament to the substantial progress we have made in persuading our European partners to take our arguments on board," underlined one of the supporters of the change, the UK creative industries minister, Shaun Woodward.

Continuing the country of origin principle foreseen in the TWF directive, the draft Audiovisual directive puts the national regulators in charge of regulating the broadcasters that operate within their borders. The agreed text includes also a mechanism allowing a destination Member State under certain limited circumstances to take measures against a provider established in another Member State.

Television in the digital age: MEPs adopt a new approach to product placement (14.11.2006)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/039-12616-317...

Britain kills EU attempt to regulate net video clips (14.11.2006)
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1947176,00.html

Regulation of web video watered down in Europe (16.11.2006)
http://www.out-law.com/default.aspx?page=7488

EDRI-gram: Draft Audiovisual Media Services Directive under criticism (24.05.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.10/audiovisualEDRI-gram

EU Audiovisual Directive:Budapest Declaration for Freedom of the Internet (30.08.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.16/budapestdeclaration