Department for Culture Media and Sport
international broadcasting
We promote UK interests in Broadcasting Policy within the European Union (EU), the Council of Europe (CoE) and other international fora.
Television Without Frontiers and the Audiovisual Media Services Directive
We are responsible for implementing the EU’s Television Without Frontiers Directive (TVWF) in the UK, and have been involved in the recent negotiations to revise the Directive to take account of new technological and market developments.
These negotiations resulted in the new Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which came into force on 19 December 2007. The UK and other member states now have until 19 December 2009 to implement the Directive.
The new AVMS Directive updates EU rules on TV broadcasting by:
- Simplifying rules on the proportion of TV broadcasts that can be taken up by advertisements
- Allowing for product placement in certain types of TV programme where member states want to permit it
- Retaining the single-market “Country of origin” principle, where TV broadcasters are regulated only by the member state from which they are transmitting.
DCMS is currently consulting on proposals for implementing the AVMS Directive in the UK. The consultation seeks views on three specific issues which are expected to require legislation. These are:
- 'co-regulating' video-on-demand services;
- product placement; and,
- regulating satellite TV channels from outside the EU which uplink from the UK.
Other projects originating from the Directive include
- Broadcasters’ access to footage of major sporting and other events for showing in TV news programmes’ “short reports”.
- considering whether, and to what extent, to change current UK rules on amounts of TV advertising in the light of the Directive. (This project is being taken forward by Ofcom.)
The DCMS consultation on AVMS Implementation runs from Friday 25 July 2008 until to Friday 31 October 2008. A stakeholder meeting will be held in late September 2008 to discuss the issues in more detail. If you are not already on our AVMS stakeholder list and you would like to be kept informed about developments or attend the stakeholder meeting, then please email Natasha Pavey.
Our 2006 consultation on the Commission’s original proposals for amending the TVWF Directive, and the summary of responses is available in the reference library.
Council of Europe
The convention on transfrontier-television extends the provisions of the TVWF Directive to the member states of the "Council of Europe" (CoE). The UK is represented on the CoE’s "Standing committee on transfrontier television" (T-TT) , which is working to update the transfrontier television convention in line with the amended TVWF Directive.
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