Television across Europe: regulation, policy and independence

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Television across Europe regulation, policy and
independence
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Television main source of information

• TV maintains a dominant position despite rise of
  new communication technologies
• TV the most influential medium in forming public
  opinion
• TV viewing time steady increase over recent years

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TV viewing time

• Individual television viewing time (2003)
• Ranked by viewing time, Average viewing time for
  adults, Monday-Sunday (minutes per day)
• 1. Serbia and Montenegro 278 11. Turkey 224
• 2. Hungary 274 12. Germany 217
• 3. Macedonia 259 13. Czech Republic 214
• 4. Croatia 254 14. France 213
• 5. Poland 250 15. Lithuania 210
• 6. Italy 245 16. Latvia 207
• 7. Estonia 239 17. Bulgaria 185
• 8. UK 239 18. Slovenia 178
• 9. Slovakia 235 19. Albania NA
• 10. Romania 235 20. Bosnia and Herzegovina NA
• Average (18 countries) 219
• Source IP International Marketing Committee

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How people watch television
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Broadcasting regulation

• National legislation ensures varying degrees of
  independence of broadcasting regulators
• Political and commercial pressures on regulators
  remain
• No single model of broadcasting regulation
• However, generally accepted principles

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Broadcasting regulation

• Political influence vs. political interference
  and pressures
• Main legal mechanisms to ensure independence of
  broadcasting regulators
• Appointment and termination conditions
• Conditions for their term in office/legal remit
• Conflict of interest provisions
• Criteria for appointing the members
• Funding

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Public service broadcasting

• In both Western and Eastern Europe
• Close political ties between PSB and governments
  and political parties
• Increasingly commercialised content in PSBs
  struggle to keep up with commercial stations
• Role of PSB ongoing debate

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Public service broadcasting

• In Transition countries
• PSB often faces political pressures and
  interference
• PSB lacks sufficient funding
• PSB suffers from low professional and public
  awareness on the role that it should play
• Distinction between PSBs and commercial stations
  increasingly blurred, in terms of programme
  content and quality
• Arrival of commercial broadcasting shook monopoly
  of emergent PSBs and resulted in sharp drops in
  viewership

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Funding of public service broadcasting

• A combination of license fee, state money and
  advertising
• License fee (more than 50 percent)
• U.K., France, Germany, Italy
• Czech Republic, Slovakia
• Romania
• Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia
• Turkey
• State money (more than 50 percent)
• Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia
• Hungary
• Serbia
• Albania
• Advertising (more than 50 percent)
• Poland, U.K. (Channel 4)

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Funding of public service broadcastingBudget of
the public television stations (in per capita, in
euros)
Source EUMAP reports (budgets for 2003 or 2004)
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Concentration of television markets

• Television markets extremely concentrated in
  terms of ownership and viewership
• Despite legislation against formation of dominant
  positions, concentration of ownership has
  continued
• Very low degree of transparency of media
  ownership and interests
• Increased presence of transnational investors in
  the broadcasting sector

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Concentration of national audiences
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Concentration of ownership

• Main investors in television in Central and
  Eastern Europe

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Concentration of television markets

• The advertising pie
• France (largest three channels over 75)
• Italy (Mediaset RAI almost 80)
• Germany (RTLSAT.1, ProSieben around 70)
• Slovakia (Markiza TV 76)
• Czech Republic (TV Nova 66)

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Television programming

• Scarce diversity
• Commercialisation
• Minority programming and investigative reporting
  scarce commodities on television
• Blurred distinction between PSB and commercial
  broadcasters

Lisola dei famosi (RAI2)
Slovensko hladá Superstar (STV1)
Surprize, surprize TVR1
Wild Anastasia (STV1)
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Digitalisation

• Across Europe many questions about digital
  roll-out have still to be answered - mainly
  related to its financing and its implications for
  regulation
• Digitalisation likely to sharpen competition and
  boost diversity and pluralism
• Digitalisation expected to pose new challenges
  to PSBs and the existing regulatory frameworks
• In transition countries, digitalisation is a slow
  process - due to lack of funding, policy and
  legal frameworks

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Conclusions

• Television
• scarce diversity and pluralism
• subject to economic and political pressures
• Public service television
• in search of identity
• needs reform and protection
• Commercial television
• non-transparent ownership
• concentration of ownership
• need for policy to boost diversity and pluralism
  in TV

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Television across Europe regulation, policy and
independence