Slovakia

[SK] Amendment to the Broadcasting and Retransmission Act

IRIS 2007-3:1/29

Jana Markechová

Markechova Law Offices

The Slovak Parliament has recently approved an amendment to the Broadcasting and Retransmission Act No. 308/2000 Coll. The amendment to the act is published as No. 13/2007 and became effective on 1 February 2007.

The amendment foresees that advertisement and tele-shopping spots must not be broadcast with a sound volume higher than the sound volume of the parts of the programme service that immediately precede or follow such spots. This parameter is also applicable to audio-visual tools separating advertisement and tele-shopping from other parts of the programme service.

The purpose of this amendment is to eliminate annoyance to the viewer watching broadcast programme services and other audio, visual or audio-visual information designated for public reception. The amendment was regarded as necessary since several broadcasters in the past tended to turn up the sound volume during advertisement spots and programme sponsorship announcements, and thereby created disturbing effects during the programmes broadcast prior to the advertisements. With the new law a broadcaster now has the duty to ensure that the broadcast's sound volume is not increased during the broadcast of advertisement and audio-visual tools separating advertisement or tele-shopping spots from other parts of the programme, as well as programme sponsorship announcements.