Search results : 103

On 26 June 2008, the European Court of First Instance ruled that Articles 1 and 2 of Commission Decision 2005/406/EC of 15 October 2003 on ad hoc measures implemented by Portugal for RTP should be annulled. The Commission’s decision had considered that government measures in favour of RTP, the Public Service Broadcaster, developed in the late 1990s had been under the scope of Public Service and did not constitute state aid. The court has found that (67) “the Commission – since it did not examine whether, despite its selective nature, the exemption from notarial charges did not constitute State...

On the 30 May 2008, the 12º Vara Cível de Lisboa , a Portuguese Court, prohibited the exhibition of the programme “44.ª Corrida TV” (44^th TV bullfighting), scheduled by the Public Service Broadcaster, Rádiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP), for Sunday afternoon (8 June) at 17h00. The Court decided that bullfighting could not be broadcast before 22h30 and without an identifying symbol advising viewers of the violent nature of the programme's content. In a country with a long tradition of bullfighting, this landmark decision was taken following a complaint of the animal rights association Animal,...

The rules for the allocation of Digital Terrestrial Television concessions, nº 207-A/2008, have been published in the Official Journal. The document establishes that there are two distinct public calls for tender: the first deals with the award of a national coverage license, concerning Multiplex A, for the transmission of TV programmes with non-conditional access. The second covers the granting, to one sole entity, of five frequency usage rights to the transmission of TV channels with either conditional or non-conditional access (two of these corresponding to national coverage licenses, concerning...

The Portuguese Council of Ministers has approved a Resolution allowing for the creation of a fifth national free-access TV channel on the upcoming Digital Terrestrial Television platform. The Resolution, approved on 3 January 2008, states that the available radio spectrum capacity on Multiplex A is to be reserved for: a) the broadcasting of a new free-access TV programme service not subject to any conditions; b) the non-simultaneous broadcasting (until the shut-down of analogue television) of High Definition streams from service providers available on Multiplexer A; c) other electronic communication...

The new Portuguese Television Act nº27/2007 of 30 July regulating both access to, and exercise of, broadcasting activities has been published in the Diário da República (Official Journal of the Republic). Marking the conclusion of a process which had been initiated by the government in the second semester of 2006 (see IRIS 2007-1: 15), the new Act partially transposes into the national legal order the Directive Television without Frontiers and revokes both Act nº 32/2003 of 22 August and Decree-Law nº 237/98 of 5 August. Articles 4 and 5 of the former will, however, remain effective until a new...