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The Portuguese Government will abolish the Office for Media (Gabinete para os Meios de Comunicação Social - GMCS) at the end of the year, as determined by Law Decree no. 24/2015 of 6 February 2015. The date has been settled, while the transfer of responsibilities assigned to this body to the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers will take place on 31 December. The plan is to keep part of the Office’s team members (currently approximately 30 persons) in a smaller unit near the Presidency of the Council of Ministers to continue advising the Government on media issues. The...

The Law Decree no. 320/XII extending the private copying fees to a range of electronic equipment was approved on 8 May 2015 with 120 votes in favour from the bipartisan coalition (PSD and CDS). After the President's veto in March 2014, the law proposal returned to the Assembly of the Republic to be appreciated for the second time and its approval forces the promulgation. Bearing in mind legal requirements and since the President has eight days for this procedure, the law will most likely come into force after 20 June 2015. The law was prepared and voted on in the Assembly of the Republic, although...

On 28 January 2015, the Competition Court upheld the Competition Authority’s (Autoridade da Concorrência - AdC) decision regarding the prohibition of the distribution of Sport TV shares between three Portuguese media companies. Controlinveste Media, NOS (the former Zon Optimus) and Portugal Telecom (PT) where planning this procedure, known as a “triangle operation”, designed to split the Sport TV capital stock. The strategy was to sell 25 per cent to NOS (of the 50 per cent that PT owns in Sport TV), while keeping the remaining 50 per cent under the purview of Controlinveste. Following this and...

Early this year, the Portuguese parliament approved the first amendment to the Cinema and Audiovisual Act (no. 55/2012, dated 6 September 2012) (see IRIS 2012-7/33 and IRIS 2013-4/26), which establishes reduced fees for operators. The act proposal was intended to provide more funding to this field of activity through the collection of a fee from pay-TV operators (namely, Zon/Optimus, MEO/PT, Cabovisão and Vodafone), an amount which is directed to the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual (ICA - Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual) for later investment in the sector. However, at the beginning of...

On 9 July 2014, the Portuguese Parliament approved Act no. 40/2014 which introduces, for the second time, changes to the Television and On-Demand Audiovisual Services Act - Law no. 27/2007 (see IRIS 2011-4/30 and IRIS 2011-6/25). These modifications alter the programme-content obligations of the public service broadcaster RTP 1 (Rádio e Televisão Portuguesa). Under the new provisions, the law requires the broadcaster to include programmes that enhance the following areas: education, health, science, research, the arts, innovation, entrepreneurship, interculturalism, the promotion of gender equality,...