New rules for the digital era and the European film sector

Members of the European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee have endorsed a political agreement reached on the reform of the EU legislation on Audiovisual Media Services.

A vote in plenary to endorse the new rules is likely to take place in September or October 2018.

European Parliament negotiators and the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council agreed on an updated EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive, based on the proposal presented by the European Commission on 25 May 2016, on 6 June 2018.

"We have now made European media regulation fit for the digital era by applying similar rules to similar services, whether online or offline. We have finally negotiated a level of protection for internet media services similar to that in place for traditional broadcast media", declared Sabine Verheyen MEP, the European Parliament’s lead negotiator on the reform of the legislation.

With this result, after negotiation with the Member States, we have established a fair, level playing field by adapting some important rules to internet media services which were formerly only applicable to traditional television.

Sabine Verheyen pointed out that the result is also great news for the European film sector and our European cultural diversity: video on demand platforms will have to assign 30% of their catalogue to European productions. This will give a boost to European creativity in the audiovisual sector.

The main goals were also to protect consumers against excessive advertising during peak viewing hours, and in particular to protect children and minors.

"I am happy to say that we have been successful in negotiating that a similar level of protection now also applies to internet media services, as it does to the classical broadcast media services. The transparency rules for advertising, especially on product placement and sponsorship, will now also apply to video-sharing platforms. This is a great achievement for the protection of consumers, especially children and minors. It was our main goal to protect our consumers against excessive advertising”, she concluded.