Romania

[RO] Situation regarding Audiovisual Licences at August 2006

IRIS 2006-10:1/33

Mariana Stoican

Journalist, Bucharest

According to statistics (Situaţie statistică - 01.08.2006) published on 1 August 2006 by the Consiliul Naţional al Audiovizualului (National Audiovisual Council - CNA)) there currently exist in Romania 263 valid licences for terrestrial television, 286 licences for cable television and 92 licences for satellite television. In total there are, regarding radio and television, 4,841 cable licences, 255 of which were granted this year. The overall figure of valid CNA licences came, at the beginning of August this year, to 6,142; 1,025 broadcasting companies owned a CNA licence and CNA licences had been awarded to a total of 9,700 Romanian localities

According to the Law on Broadcasting and Television in Romania (Legea audiovizualului nr. 504/2002) the right to broadcast a programme is dependent on having an audiovisual licence and, under certain circumstances, a broadcasting licence. The granting of an audiovisual licence takes place for programmes that are broadcast terrestrially on radio-electronic channels, on the basis of a competitive procedure; for the remaining programmes it is for the CNA to decide.

In allocating licences, respect for the public interest, ensuring a balance between national, regional and local programmes, the avoidance of a dominant market position and any practice which may hamper free competition as well as, depending on the case, the experience and expertise of the applicant in the audiovisual field, are criteria to be taken into account.

An audiovisual licence is granted for a period of nine years and may, under certain conditions determined by the regulatory authority, be extended for a further nine years (see IRIS 2005-8: 19).