Television across Europe: regulation, policy and independence

1
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 in spite of internet new platforms

3
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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Broadcasting regulation

• No single (EUROPEAN) model of broadcasting
  regulation gt yet DUAL system in place
  considered integral part of European political
  and cultural identity!
• Political and commercial pressures on regulators
  remain
• However, generally accepted principles such as
  strict separation of state or private owners from
  political control over broadcasters

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Public service broadcasting -ongoing debate

• Close political ties between PSB and governments
  and political parties - autonomy of PSB can be
  easily eroded
• Financing for socially desirable programmes to
  private broadcasters could achieve similar
  results but more cost-effective than by PSB
• Increasingly commercialised content in PSBs
  struggle to keep up with commercial stations
• Effects of digitalisation

6
Principles of PSB

• CoE Parliamentary Assembly 2004 PSB is a vital
  element of democracy in Europe because of its
  specific remit to provide the whole of society
  with
• Information (access to a broad range of views
  opinions to enable citizens to make an informed
  choice)
• Culture
• Education
• Entertainment
• gt PSB enhances social, political and cultural
  citizenship and stimulates cohesion of society!

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Public service broadcasting -ongoing debate

• Close political ties between PSB and governments
  and political parties - autonomy of PSB can be
  easily eroded
• Financing for socially desirable programmes to
  private broadcasters could achieve similar
  results but more cost-effective than by PSB
• Increasingly commercialised content PSB struggle
  to keep up with commercial stations gt differences
  vanish
• Effects of digitalisation /multiplatform
  world/the licence fee is becoming harder to
  justify when fewer citizens value the product

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PSB in countries of transition

• Chronically undercapitalised technically
  backward but overstaffed
• Unable to regain credibility
• Pathetic attempts to compete with commercial
  rivals little distinctive content of social
  value
• Devolution from state control slow and unfinished
  so that PSB often still subject to political
  dominance by ruling parties, particularly before
  elections times of crises

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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
• Low degree of transparency of media ownership and
  interests
• Increased presence of transnational investors in
  the broadcasting sector

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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 (RTL, ProSiebenSat.1 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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Content diversity in the context of concentration
of media markets a new study commissioned by
the COE Media Division (Croatia, Italy, Norway,
UK)

• Growing separation of broadcasters into three
  clusters
• PSB
• Established commercial broadcasters with some
  high social value programming
• Commercial broadcasters whose schedules are
  essentially entertainment and import based
• Whilst TV news is a growing industry, other
  strands of programming that provide analysis and
  information about political or current affairs
  are marginal
• Where commercial broadcasters have minimum or no
  positive regulatory obligations there is a
  distinct lack of programming of high social value
  and an absence of domestic investment in
  programming with a heavy reliance on imported
  (US) programmes
• There is a marked difference between PSB and
  commercial channels in terms of programming
  investment in areas that do not attract large
  audiences as well as domestic production

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Conclusions

• Television
• scarce diversity and pluralism
• subject to economic and political pressures
• Public service television
• in search of identity
• Lost in transition in many CEE SEE countries
• 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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International level recommendations

• The European Commission should initiate
  legislation to ensure transparency of ownership
  in the broadcasting sector.
• The EU should establish an independent agency
  with the mandate of monitoring media markets and
  media concentration in the EU and on global
  markets.
• The EU should lead efforts to enhance
  coordination between EU member governments, the
  CoE, and international and national media
  organisations, in order to avoid redundant
  projects and to increase the effectiveness and
  impact of implemented media projects and
  programmes.
• The EU should coordinate, and eventually
  integrate, existing measures in support of media
  development within the EU, with programmes to
  support media in the countries covered by the
  EUs European Neighbourhood Policy and
  Stabilisation and Association Process, in order
  to develop synergies and improve efficiency and
  quality.

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National level recommendations-1

• Governments should include in their national
  media policies strategies for the development of
  local television stations and community media.
  Such stations and media should have fair access
  to the frequency spectrum, and should, where a
  reasonable showing of need has been made, benefit
  from support to start-up their operations.
• Governments and Parliaments should provide for
  broad public consultations about media policy and
  media legislation. Public authorities,
  particularly in transition countries, should pay
  particular attention to involve civil society
  representatives including from consumers
  groups, media rights organisations and NGOs,
  professional organisations, academia, and other
  civic partners in media policy and legislation.
• In particular, such civil society representatives
  should be consulted on measures to ensure that
  broadcast regulators, and the broadcasters
  themselves, are fully independent digitalisation
  and other technological developments relating to
  broadcasting measures to ensure that the public
  interest is served by broadcasters monitoring
  for compliance of broadcasters with their
  legislative and licence obligations.
• Broadcasting regulators should ensure that
  digital licences are distributed to a diverse
  range of operators, in order to ensure that the
  current dominant positions in the analogue
  broadcasting are not perpetuated.

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National level recommendations - 2

• Governments or regulators, as applicable, should
  provide financial and other support to producers
  who create programming for ethnic, linguistic and
  other minorities, and for broadcasters which
  broadcast such content. At the same time,
  regulators should recognise the fundamental
  importance of such content in the licence
  granting process.
• Governments and regulators should either impose
  basic public service obligations for commercial
  broadcasters, as a necessary and desirable
  instrument of broadcasting regulation, or should
  encourage commercial broadcasters to broadcast
  public interest content, through appropriate
  incentives.
• Governments should adopt and implement
  legislation ensuring transparency of ownership of
  all media outlets, including external investors.
• Governments should, where such legislation is not
  in place, adopt to ensure social and labour
  protection for media professionals employed in
  commercial broadcasters and in public service
  broadcasters.
• Broadcasting regulators should ensure that
  digital licences are distributed to a diverse
  range of operators, in order to ensure that the
  current dominant positions in the analogue
  broadcasting are not perpetuated.

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Television across Europe regulation, policy and
independence