Belgium

[BE] Flemish Community: Licence for a New Commercial TV-Broadcaster (Event TV)

IRIS 1999-1:1/26

Dirk Voorhoof

Human Rights Centre, Ghent University and Legal Human Academy

On the basis of the revised Flemish Broadcasting Decree ( see IRIS 1998-1: 12, IRIS 1998-2: 9, IRIS 1998-5: 13 and IRIS 1998-9: 9) which has abrogated the exclusivity of the license of the Flemish commercial broadcasting organisation VTM, an additional licence has now been given to a new private TV-broadcaster, Event TV Vlaanderen (Art. 41, 1°). On 4 December 1998 the Flemish Media Authority ( Vlaams Commissariaat voor de Media) has authorised Event TV to broadcast for a period of nine years. The new commercial channel will operate under a "must carry" rule, which means that the transmission of Event TV programmes is obligatory for all Flemish cable network operators (Art. 112 § 1, 2°). It is expected that Event TV, which will focus on all sorts of events, will start broadcasting by the end of January 1999. In the application of Article 49 of the Broadcasting Decree, Event TV will be obliged to program at least two TV-newscasts a day.