Republic of Türkiye

[TR] Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council Releases Draft Regulation

IRIS 2018-10:1/25

Gizem Gültekin Várkonyi

University of Szeged, Faculty of Law and Political Science

Under Article 82 of Law No. 7103 on Amendments to Tax Laws and to Some Laws and Executive Decrees amending the Law on Radio and Television Establishment and Broadcasting Services of 27 March 2018 (Sayılı Vergi Kanunları İle Bazı Kanun Ve Kanun Hükmünde Kararnamelerde Değişiklik Yapılması Hakkında Kanun) new powers have been given to the Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council - the RTUK), as reported in the last issue of IRIS Newsletter (see IRIS 2018-9/31). This regulation established the RTUK as the institution responsible for licensing broadcasting-service providers who offer online broadcasting services. Building on this legislative amendment, a draft Regulation on Radio, Television, and Optional Broadcasting Services Provided on the Internet (Radyo, Televizyon ve İsteğe Bağlı Yayınların İnternet Ortamından Sunumu Hakkında Yönetmelik Taslağı) has just been prepared in order to clarify how to determine the principles and procedures regarding the broadcasting of radio, television and on-demand broadcast services via the Internet, the transmission of such services, the issuance of broadcast licences to Internet service providers and the supervision of broadcasting by platform operators. The draft has been published on RTUK’s website.

The draft provides three types of licences for which media services providers would be able to apply; these cover, respectively, the following purposes:

- INTERNET-RD - radio broadcasting

- INTERNET-TV - television broadcasting

- INTERNET-IBYH - designed for providers that offer optional broadcasting services via the Internet.

Under the draft regulation, a media service provider would have to apply for each licence separately when offering broadcasting services falling under all of these three categories. The RTUK could detect unlicensed broadcasting activities either on its own initiative or upon receiving a complaint. In such cases, the RTUK would announce its findings on the RTUK official website and send a notification to the service providers concerned, informing them of the need to lodge an application for the relevant licence within three months. If the service providers did not apply for the necessary licence(s), the RTUK would ask a justice of the peace to order the removal of the unlicensed content or blockthe broadcasting activity in question.

Fees for the licences are envisaged as follows: radio license fee - TRY 10 000 (approx. EUR 1 420; television licence and licence for optional broadcasting services TRY 100 000 Turkish Lira (approx. EUR 14 .200).