EC, for the period 2003-2004 - Main contents

Please note

This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.

dossier	COM(2006)459 - Seventh communication on the application of Articles 4 and 5 of Directive 89/552/EEC "Television without Frontiers", as ...
document	COM(2006)459
date	August 14, 2006

Annex 7 of the Working Paper shows that there is very little actual difference between the EU-average transmission time of European works broadcast by primary channels (64.45% in 2003 and 63.87% in 2004) and of those broadcast by all channels. Therefore, this report, which also reflects the situation in the EU-25 for the first time, adopts a different methodology and presents the average proportions of European works from all channels covered by Article 4. Annex 7 of the Working Paper lists the channels with audience shares above 3% and their respective proportions of transmission time reserved for European works.

[22] Article 5 states that “Member States shall ensure, where practicable and by appropriate means, that broadcasters reserve at least 10% of their transmission time, excluding the time appointed to news, sports events, games, advertising, teletext services and teleshopping, or alternately, at the discretion of the Member State, at least 10% of their programming budget, for European works created by producers who are independent of broadcasters.”

[23] Within the meaning of Recital 31 of Directive 97/36/EC of 30 June 1997, which provides (under the non-exhaustive criteria) that: “… Member States, in defining the notion of “independent producer”, should take appropriate account of criteria such as the ownership of the production company, the amount of programmes supplied to the same broadcaster and the ownership of secondary rights”.

[24] Noteworthy is the fact that, for both 2003 and 2004, Danish channels had the highest average proportions of European works (cf. 2.2 above) but at the same time very low proportions of independent productions suggesting that the share of in-house broadcasting productions in Denmark is very high.

[25] As mentioned above, the Commission considers 39 out of 57 “exempted” satellite channels in 2003 as “non-reported”, which has an adverse effect on the compliance rate (Indicator 5).

[26] The Commission considers 43 out of 60 “exempted” satellite channels in 2004 to be “non-reported”.

[27] i.e. works broadcast within five years of their production.

[28] Cf. overview Chart 2, Document 2, Working Paper.

[29] Recent European works were over a period of six years consistently above one-fifth of total qualifying transmission time corresponding approximately to two-thirds of all works by independent producers. In 2003, this ratio was even exceeded with recent works accounting for more than 71% of all independent productions.

[30] In absolute terms (in relation to total qualifying transmission time), this positive development is, however, offset by the parallel drop in independent productions.

[31] Cf. Document 3, Working Paper.