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Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, has issued a brief note to clarify the responsibility of broadcasters in relation to interactive content and the application of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code (relating to programme standards) and the Advertising Standards Code. Section 362(2) of the Communications Act 2003 provides that responsibility is placed on “the person with general control over which programmes and other services and facilities are comprised in the service (whether or not he has control of the content of individual programmes or of the broadcasting or distribution of the service)”. The...

On 29 December 2005, the Catalan Parliament approved the Act on Audiovisual Communication in Catalonia (Act 22/2005). This legal text establishes Catalonia's own audiovisual system, organizedat two levels: a regional level (including public sector and commercial broadcasters), and a local level, organized in counties. The Act aims to reach a politically independent and financially sound public sector ensuring public service, and a competitive, diverse and plural private sector. The Act, which unifies and harmonizes the existing legal provisions relating to audio-visual law in Catalonia, has 140...

On 1 September 2005 the National Broadcasting Council (NBC) adopted a position on the Issues Papers presented by the European Commission, in the framework of the public consultation on the revision of the "Television without Frontiers" Directive. The adopted documents have been sent to the Commission. The NBC supported the basic premise that the new Directive should include regulations that will be technologically neutral and will take into account media convergence, and that a complex and integrated approach to the Information Society and to audiovisual media services was necessary. It also supported...

In December 2005, the Parliament amended the Закон за радиото и телевизията (Radio and Television Act, see IRIS 2002-2: 3) without prior consultation among the professional media community and with the Parliamentary Commission on Civil Society and Media. The new provisions concern the duration of advertisements of the public service broadcasters - the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) and the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR). According to the new rules the duration of advertisements of the public operators was equalled with the duration of advertisements by commercial broadcasters: “The total duration...

The British regulator, Ofcom, has upheld complaints in a significant decision relating to advertising breaks in the series `Lost' broadcast by Channel 4. A number of viewers and one television company had complained about the amount of advertising and the placement of commercial breaks in the imported US series. The net length of each episode, without breaks, was around 41 minutes; it was however placed in a 65 minute slot. It contained three advertising breaks, usually of 3 minutes 50 seconds each with a longer end break of 5-7 minutes. In addition, sponsor credits and programme trailers were...