Search results : 1510

Last Thursday, 18 March 2010, the Spanish Parliament approved the New General Law of Audiovisual Communications. This new Law has been demanded by the audiovisual sector and consumers associations and has been discussed on various occasions in the last six years in the Spanish Parliament before finally being approved. The Law sets out several rules on content and mode of operation for the players in the sector (these rules are already currently applied by broadcasters to a certain extent as, although they were not included in a general law before, they could already be found in several rules and...

On 15 February 2010, the Bundesregierung (Federal Government) introduced in the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) a bill amending the Telemediengesetz (Telemedia Act - TMG) and a second bill amending the Vorläufiges Tabakgesetz (Provisional Tobacco Act). Both bills largely correspond with the bill presented in May 2009 (see IRIS 2009-6: 10) and are designed to transpose Directive 2007/65/EC, particularly its provisions concerning on-demand audiovisual media services and the ban on tobacco advertising. The amendments to the TMG concern its scope (Art. 1(6) of the bill), the broadening of concept...

In a decision that puts an end to seven years of proceedings between the Société Suisse de Radiodiffusion et Télévision (SSR) and Métropole Télévision, the Tribunal Fédéral (Swiss Federal Court - TF) has now judged that the Swiss advertising slots operated by Métropole Télévision do not contravene legislation on either copyright or unfair competition. As a result, it will be able to continue broadcasting the M6 television channel using two separate satellite signals, one directed at the French audience, and the other carrying advertising directed specifically at Swiss viewers. SSR contended that...

On 18 January 2010, the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Regulator for the Media) rendered two decisions concerning SBS Belgium, in which it concluded there had been violations of the new rules on product placement and sponsorship. These are the first decisions in which these topics have been considered under the new Flemish Media Decree, in force only since 1 September 2009. The first decision dealt with two instances of product placement in two distinct episodes of the programme ‘The Block Ghent’. In particular, the requirement that programmes that contain product placement should not...

In March 2010 the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media released a guide to all interested parties among its member states on the switch-over process in broadcasting. The report deals with the following topics: infrastructure issues; competition law and policy; programming; public service broadcasting; the planning process; social and economic issues related to the audience; economic and technical issues of the broadcasters; and licensing issues. From a freedom of the media point of view, the technology of digital TV would allow audiences to seek and receive more information and ideas via...