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It’s finally here! Agreement on the AVMSD reached

Posted on May 25, 2007 | Filed Under digital content

“We have made a decisive step towards a true internal market for audiovisual media services and to a more competitive European audiovisual content industry,” said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, yesterday when after a legislative process of 18 months a political agreement on the new Audiovisual Media Services without frontiers Directive had been reached. European Parliament and Council agreed on the main aims of the Commission’s original proposal to modernise the rules governing the audiovisual services industry. The newly modified proposal for an “Audiovisual Media Services without frontiers Directive” which was discussed in the Council is available here.

Advocate General: “TV: possibly the most aggressive instrument for advertising”

Posted on May 25, 2007 | Filed Under digital content

Television (and advertising) comes in for a beating by Advocate General Dámaso Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer in his conclusions in the case C-195/06, KommAustria/ORF, published on 24 May 2007 (as of now not yet available in English). Citing Frederic Beigbeder and Emile Zola, the Advocate General draws a picture of viewers being assailed and stalked by marketing, where seemingly only the “Television without Frontiers”-Directive provides some hope for the protection of consumers.

It is the interpretation of a term used in that directive that is at the heart of the case pending at the Court of Justice. The Austrian Federal Communications Senate has asked for a preliminary ruling whether “teleshopping” - as used in Article 1(f) of the Directive - “includes broadcasts or parts of broadcasts in which the broadcaster offers viewers the opportunity to participate in the broadcaster’s prize games by means of immediately dialling premium rate telephone numbers, and thus in return for payment”.

So, stripped of the legalese, the question is whether or not “call in” TV quiz shows are teleshopping (and thus subject to the rules laid down for teleshopping programs in the directive). The question arose due to a Call in quiz show - now discontinued - that was broadcast by the Austrian public service (!) broadcaster (ORF); the picture illustrating this posting is a screen shot from this program).

The Advocate General’s answer: these shows are teleshopping, if the main objective is to sell the right to participate in that game. In deciding on that, it is up to the national courts to take account of the main objective of the broadcast, the economic importance of the game, the time dedicated to the game and the number of callers.

The Advocate General, by the way, has no doubts that these programs are not quiz shows, even if that is what they are called, and he concludes that the games constitute gambling. He is not alone in that view: the UK House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee in its report on call TV quiz shows came to the same conclusion.

However, it is not clear whether the Court of Justice will really decide on the interpretation of the directive, since the Advocate General also argues that the Austrian Federal Communications Senate, while in principle fulfilling all criteria required of a “court or tribunal” according to Article 234 of the EC Treaty, still is an administrative authority and not part of the court system.

regulation of non-linear sevices

Posted on May 23, 2007 | Filed Under digital content

Recently joost hit the news again as it encountered major problems, because of server overload. While this should be fixed until the official start this summer, a number of questions concerning the legal framework joost will operate in, remain.
The future audiovisual media service directive obliges the member states to introduce regulatory rules also for non-linear services - like joost. This means the states will have to take appropriate measures to ensure that audiovisual media services under their jurisdiction (Joost’s day-to-day operations e.g. are managed from three main hubs of which two are based in the Netherlands and the UK) for example promote, where practicable and by appropriate means, production of and access to European works (art 3f of the avmsd). Therefore member states would have to introduce rules, instructing service providers to include and/or foster european productions, in the case of joost alongside the us-american rooted core content it is provided by its key partners CBS and Viacom. The directive also introduces requirements concerning audiovisual commercial communication for all providers. Commercials must be readily recognizable as such and be distinguishable from editorial content (art 3g of the avmsd). Looking at joost, having no predefined commercial breaks, but ads that just ‘pop in’ unannounced, in various lenghts and are unable to skip, it remains to be seen how member state regulation will make sure the advmsd standards are met. In any case, it seems we are only at the starting point of the endeavour to a level-playing field of content regulation.

It’s the content, stupid

Posted on May 16, 2007 | Filed Under events / publications, public services

Last week (may, 10th) the Institute of Broadcasting Law at the University of Cologne hosted a conference “Fourty years Institute of Broadcasting Law. Retrospection and perspectives.” Politicians, practioners and professors appreciated in various speeches the outcomes this Institute has generated in the last fourty years, put down in 97 books published by CH Beck (Prof Stern presented them in detail).

In particular the value of this Institute as a juncture for politicians, economics and academics - so important for the development of this sector - was highlighted repeatedly. Prof Holznagel gave a very broad outlook on the major developments and challenges of this sector, respectively the electronic communications markets in general. Prof Hoeren tried a categorisation of IP-TV, handy-tv and triple play and discussed some intellectual property rights issues related to these services. The speech of Prof Pleitgen, now president of the EBU, formerly director of the german public broadcaster WDR was particularly appealing. He pointed at the comeback of the European public services broadcasters in the last ten years, and at the major role traditional “lean back” television will play further on, also in the developing digital interactive media markets. The public service broadcasters will have to adopt new strategies in this changing environment. They will have to concentrate on creating a piece of homeland for their viewers (given the overflow of information nowadays) and - of course (as it’s their task already) - to impart competence, creditability and reliability. As he cited: “It’s the content, stupid”

Access to documents about access to documents about access to networks …

Posted on May 13, 2007 | Filed Under communication technologies

Access is a cornerstone in electronic communications regulation - and of course European regulators are well aware of that. Take, for instance, the ERG/IRG Work Programme 2007, where access issues feature prominently - access to networks, and even access to content. But when access to their own documents is requested, regulators can demonstrate what they have learned from incumbent operators: working hard “to delay access by engaging in protracted negotiation or failing to provide relevant information” (quote taken - out of context - from the 5th Implementation Report). Here’s a brief report on access to documents of the European Regulators Group: Read more

Hot air balloons and bird droppings: visualising the Roaming Regulation

Posted on May 4, 2007 | Filed Under communication technologies

Commissioner Reding keeps reminding us that we are just one step short of eternal bliss internal market: the proposed Roaming Regulation “will abolish this last border in Europe’s internal market once and for all” she said this Wednesday; just a few weeks ago she had the vision that “this last border in the EU’s internal market, still visible for the moment on most consumers’ mobile phone bill, is now bound to disappear very shortly.”

Never mind the facts (there are no roaming charges on “most consumers’” phone bills, since - according to the Commission’s own data - some 55% of mobile phone users do not leave their home country, and 7% do not take their phones along when they go abroad), if you pursue the ambition of tearing down the “last border”, you probably do need a strong vision.

And what better way to communicate a vision than visualising it. So the Commission set out to convince the MTV-generation, spicing up the most recent press release with cartoon-like images, supposedly explaining how roaming works. The images are taken from animations, provided by MEDIA CONSULTA (MC), a PR and advertising agency (which, by the way, also produces MTV-shows). Currently, you can download the animations (attention: they are around 50 MB each) from MC’s server via these links:

www.media-consulta.com/016_FTP/DGINFSO_Roaming_2/SoundFX/EU_ROAMING_02.mov

www.media-consulta.com/016_FTP/DGINFSO_Roaming_3/SoundFX/EU_ROAMING_03.mov

I am pretty sure that this is not going to be a permanent link, and I have not yet found the animations anywhere else online. I like the “EU_ROAMING_02.mov” best: it shows a family on vacation, relaxing on the beach. Then the mobile phone rings, “grandma” is on the phone, telling her daughter that grandpa was taken to the hospital. All the while a red alarm-sign draws attention to the fact that receiving this call costs 0,75 € per minute. Angrily, the father takes this sign and throws it into the sand. Then a seagull comes by, leaves her droppings on the sign, and happily flies away.

I take it the message of this animation is: if your grandfather is in hospital, the most worrying thing about this is the roaming charge of 0,75 €; and the fight against high roaming charges can be compared to “s…. on them” (see, at least I try not to use the s-word).

In the other animation the costs of a call in the UK are compared to the costs of a call made by a UK-mobile phone user within Spain (0,20 € to 1,30 €); in the end, the green sign (0,20 €) develops into a balloon, spiking the red balloon sign (1,30 €), which then goes “PLOP” (litterally!) and leaves the green sign smiling. Maybe it’s good that the animations are not shown on TV: this could be “gratuitous violence” according to Art 22 of the proposed Audiovisual Media Services Directive

PS: Parliament’s vote on the Roaming Regulation was postponed; still it is expected that there is going to be a compromise before summer - since some points still seem to be in motion, I will go into the details of the regulation once it is agreed upon.

Television goes mobile (also in Austria)

Posted on May 2, 2007 | Filed Under digital content, spectrum policy

Recently, draft amendment regulations of the Austrian broadcasting laws have been issued to enable the introduction of digital mobile TV in Austria. The new rules shall establish a basis for the allocation of radio frequencies for the transmission of audiovisual content using the new “mobile TV” standards: DVB-H and T-DMB. So far, the relevant provisions on digital television (in the ORF-Act, the KommAustria Act and the Private Television Act) are designed solely for the DVB-T standard.

Such a regulatory approach differentiating between different network types of digital television (mobile TV via UMTS will again be handled by completely different rules) does not really comply with the principle of technology neutrality as stipulated by the European rules on electronic communication and audiovisual media. It’s much more of a patchwork solution: for every new technology we create new rules.

But it’s the question if a technology neutral approach is at all possible in this area, as the mobile TV technologies require specific frequency bands and these are scarce resources; this implicates automatically that the State (the regulator) itself determines (and not the market) for which services and/or transmission technologies to use and allocate the available spectrum.

Defining spectrum for mobile TV is also a key issue at European level. The Commission is working to ensure a minimum of harmonised EU frequencies, so mobile TV services can be introduced cross Europe. A Commission Communication on mobile TV is expected for mid 2007.