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The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers have finally adopted the new text of the "Television without Frontiers" directive, the main objective of which is to create the conditions necessary for the free movement of television broadcasts. Directive 97/36/EC, modifying Directive 89/552/EEC "Television without Frontiers" of 3 October 1989 was adopted on (the exact date will be published in the September issue of IRIS (issue No 1997-8) since at the closing date of this issue the President of the European Parliament was still to sign), at the end of two years of intensive negotiations between...

On 5 June 1997, the Court of Justice of the European Communities confirmed its case law on the interpretation of the jurisdictional criteria and rules on free movement of services contained in the `Television without Frontiers' Directive. The judgement followed questions referred to the Court by the Belgian Council of State in proceedings brought by VT4, a private commercial television station targetting the Flemish audience but using the United Kingdom as its home basis, against a decision of the Flemish Minister for Culture and Brussels Affairs refusing VT4 access for its television programmes...

On 29 May 1997, the Court of Justice of the European Communities gave its judgement on the interpretation of certain provisions in the Television without Frontiers Directive following questions submitted by a Belgian court in proceedings related to the distribution on the cable network (in the U.S. referred to as `cable system') of Coditel in the bi-lingual region of Brussels of the television channel TNT & Cartoon Network. As is the case for VT4 (see next article), the TNT & Cartoon Network is operated by a company established in the United Kingdom, under a non-domestic satellite license granted...

With decisions issued respectively on 4 June and 11 October 1996 the Tribunals of Rome and Milan have replied negatively to the request of two different Consumer Associations to impose the broadcasters the respect of the directive. In the first case, the Tribunal of Rome, although considering that the Association had locus standi before the Court, decided that the Directive was not directly applicable in the case at hand, because it had no "horizontal effects' (i.e. it could not be enforced against a private entity if not correctly implemented). In the second case the Tribunal of Milan reached...

The Independent Television Commission (ITC) has decided that, as a result of the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EC (Case C-222/94, see IRIS 1996-10: 5-6), it will not in future license satellite services transmitted from the UK, by or on behalf of EU persons, unless the service provider is 'established' in the UK. When considering the "establishment" of a service provider, the ITC will look at the principal place of business of the licensee or applicant and where editorial decisions about programmes and programme schedules are made The Broadcasting Act 1990 required the ITC to exercise...