Romania

[RO] New Rules for Cable Broadcasting

IRIS 1995-8:1/27

Nicolas Pélissier

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France (CNRS)

As law n° 48/1992 on the audio-visual sector fails to adequately cover a large number of points within the sector in Rumania, the decisions of the National Audiovisual Council (N.A.C.) have assumed considerable importance. This is particularly true for cable broadcasting, especially in the light of an ambitious decision taken by the regulatory authorities to overcome the shortcomings of article 21 of the framework law. Cable broadcasting has undergone extremely rapid development in eastern European countries since 1991, but this growth has shown up the legislative weaknesses, which have led to a certain amount of turmoil in the sector. In Rumania, 518 broadcasting companies have been licensed by the N.A.C. in what has turned out to be a sort of competitive anarchy, with abundant examples of malpractice The N.A.C. has taken a number of suitable measures to remedy this situation and to improve the quality of audio-visual reception in the 2 million Rumanian households which are connected up to the cable network. Decision no. 116 of 27 December 1994 lays down a whole series of obligations that licensed broadcasters have to meet: subtitling or dubbing of certain foreign-made programmes (films, documentaries, cartoons), information as to the origin of the programmes and the conditions under which they may be broadcast; no films of an erotic nature may be shown before midnight, while commercials can only be shown at certain times ; systematic broadcasting of public television programmes, etc.

Moreover, licences will only now be granted within a much stricter framework than that provided for under the framework-law. Decision no. 116 also pays considerable attention to the broadcasting requirements. The Decision explicitly recognises licence-holders to broadcast their own programmes (a necessary element for the medium-term development of the Rumanian audio-visual sector), while at the same time requiring these programmes to meet the same legal conditions as those laid down for terrestrial broadcasts.