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ftm KNOWLEDGE
Europe’s Media Rules – From Television Without Frontiers to the FutureThe Television Without Frontiers Directive is all but a memory, soon to be replaced by the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. This ftm Knowledge file details the issues, the debates and the outcome. Also included are articles on competition, product placement and cinema. 51 pages PDF (June 2007) Free to ftm Members, others from €39 OrderFlying Through Turbulence – Media in the New EU Member Statesftm reports on media in the 12 newest EU Member States. Will media find clear air or more turbulence? 98 pages PDF file (February 2007) Free to ftm members and others from €39 AGENDA
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Hungarian and Czech Parliaments Faulted for Digital DelayThe European Commission’s 2012 deadline for digital TV conversion only gets closer. And with RRC-06 looming large, digital frequency allocations are threatened by a lack of national legislation.
None of this stopped Czech public TV from launching an all-sports digital channel just ahead of the Turin winter Olympics opening ceremony. Czech public TV, Nova TV and Prima TV operate digital channels with experimental licenses. Several radio stations operate digital channels. The RRTV has also been busy. Czech public TV was admonished last week (February 12) for broadcasting too many commercial ads. Two weeks earlier TV Nova, the largest Czech TV broadcaster, was fined for “indecency” in its broadcast of reality TV show Big Brother. All of this rings a similar note in Hungary where Parliament, also, has not come to grips with digital media, amidst political squabbling. Like the Czech Republic, no one political party in Hungary has sufficient Parliamentary votes to move past territorial issues, such as overturning the two-thirds vote requirement to change the law re-organizing media regulator ORTT into a super-regulator, merging media with internet and mobile phone rules. "Hungary's competitiveness very much depends on whether the local transmissions are converted fully by the end-2011 deadline called for by the European Union," warned IT Minister Kalman Kovacs, quoted by Hungarian press agency MTI. He also warned that the eight frequencies Hungary wants from the ITU-RRC-06 European allocations conference this summer depend on a legal framework for digital broadcasting being in place. He was not optimistic. Hungarian public broadcaster Magyar Radio offers limited “experimental” digital radio services on a DAB multiplex. A student radio station has tried and failed to acquire a DAB license from the ORTT. Impossible, they say, because “digital broadcasting does not exist legally in Hungary.” The prospect of dozens, if not hundreds, of new, slick, digital competitors does not thrill the established – and successful – commercial TV operators. A legal advisor to a major European television broadcaster with a channel in Hungary said it would be, for them, a “nightmare.” The public broadcasters are moving as best they can with continuing funding and organizational issues. Prospective digital TV multiplex operators, according to the most recent draft of the Hungarian law, would be required to “support” distribution of set-top boxes. Ah, competition rules Hungarian airwaves - July 21, 2007
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Over a year ago the Czech media regulator Radio and Television Broadcasting Council (RRTV) began accepting applications for digital TV licenses. No action could be taken on licenses because the Czech Parliament, in re-organizing the regulator, left out provisions for digital broadcasting. Hearings were set to re-start last week after yet another delay. The RRTV has regularly released statements on the eminent arrival of digital TV only to face delays that observers describe as purely political.