Commission of the European Communities

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES Brussels, 08.11.2002 COM(2002) 612 final FIFTH COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT on the application of Articles 4 and 5 of Directive 89/552/EEC “Television without Frontiers”, as amended by Directive 97/36/EC, for the period 1999–2000 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................3 I. COMMISSION’S OPINION ON THE APPLICATION OF ARTICLES 4 AND 5 FOR THE PERIOD 1999/2000.................................................4 1. Application by the European Union Member States ....................................................4 1.1 Requirement to broadcast a majority proportion of European works...........................5 1.1.1 Assessment at Community level...................................................................................5 1.1.2. Assessment at national level .......................................................................................10 1.2 Works by independent producers ...............................................................................25 1.2.1 Assessment at Community level.................................................................................25 1.2.2 Assessment at Member State level .............................................................................29 1.3 General conclusion .....................................................................................................41 2.1 Requirement to broadcast a majority proportion of European works.........................42 2.2 European works by independent producers ................................................................42 2.1 Requirement to broadcast a majority proportion of European works.........................42 2.2 European works by independent producers ................................................................42 II. - SUMMARY OF THE REPORTS FROM THE MEMBER STATES ..............................44 III. – SUMMARY OF THE REPORTS FROM THE MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN FREE TRADE ASSOCIATION PARTICIPATING IN THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA.............................................................100 IV. ANNEXES........................................................................................................................103 ANNEX 1 LIST OF TELEVISION CHANNELS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES WHICH FAILED TO ACHIEVE THE MAJORITY PROPORTION OF EUROPEAN WORKS AND/OR THE MINIMUM PROPORTION OF 10% OF EUROPEAN WORKS BY INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS ........................................................................................104 ANNEX 2 PARAMETERS USED TO CALCULATE THE AVERAGE TRANSMISSION TIME OF EUROPEAN WORKS BY THE CHANNELS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES (TAKING AUDIENCE RATING INTO ACCOUNT) — ARTICLE 4 OF THE “TELEVISION WITHOUT FRONTIERS” DIRECTIVE.................................................111 2 INTRODUCTION This communication, drawn up pursuant to Article 4.3 of Council Directive 89/552/EEC1 of 3 October 1989 on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities, as amended by Directive 97/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 June 19972 (hereinafter referred to as the “Television without Frontiers” Directive), constitutes the Commission’s fifth report on the implementation of Articles 4 and 5. This document includes a statistical statement on the achievement in 1999-2000 of the proportion referred to in Articles 4 and 5 for each of the television programmes falling within the jurisdiction of the European Union Member State concerned and those of the Member States of the European Free Trade Association participating in the European Economic Area (hereinafter referred to as EFTA). The Member States are under an obligation to provide the Commission with a report every two years on their application of Articles 4 and 5. Under the provisions of the Treaty, the Commission is responsible for ensuring compliance with this requirement. The purpose of this document is to bring these national reports, together with the Commission’s opinion on the implementation of Articles 4 and 5 of the “Television without Frontiers” Directive, to the attention of the Member States, the European Parliament and the Council. It comprises three parts and two annexes: S Part I – Commission’s opinion on the application of Articles 4 and 5 for the period 1999-2000; S Part II – National reports from the European Union Member States; S Part III – National reports from the Member States of the European Free Trade Association participating in the European Economic Area; S Annex 1: List of television channels in the European Union Member States which failed to achieve the majority proportion of European works (Article 4 of the Directive) and/or the minimum proportion of 10% of European works by independent producers (Article 5 of the Directive); S Annex 2: Parameters used to calculate the average transmission time of European works by the channels of the European Union Member States (taking audience rating into account) — Article 4 of the Directive. 1 OJEC L 298, 17.10.1989. 2 OJEC L 202, 30.07.1997. 3 I. COMMISSION’S OPINION ON THE APPLICATION OF ARTICLES 4 AND 5 FOR THE PERIOD 1999/2000 1. APPLICATION BY THE EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES Under Article 4.3 of the “Television without Frontiers” Directive, the Commission is responsible for ensuring the application of Articles 4 and 5 in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty. The European Union Member States and the EFTA Member States participating in the European Economic Area are under an obligation to provide the Commission with a report every two years on application of Articles 4 and 5, including (i) a statistical statement on the achievement of the proportion referred to in these Articles for each of the television programmes falling within the jurisdiction of the Member State concerned, (ii) the reasons, in each case, for the failure to attain that proportion, (iii) and the measures adopted or envisaged in order to achieve it. Article 4.3 of the Directive provides that the Commission may take account in its opinion, in particular, of (non-exhaustive criteria): – progress achieved in relation to previous years; – the share of first broadcast works in the programming; – the particular circumstances of new television broadcasters; – the specific situation of countries with a low audiovisual production capacity or restricted language area. To assist the Member States with their monitoring responsibilities, guidelines drawn up by the Contact Committee3 have been suggested for the implementation of Articles 4 and 5. These guidelines, which are intended to clarify certain definitions so as to avoid differences of interpretation and application of the Directive4, entered into force on 1 January 1999 and therefore cover the reference period (1999-2000) of this report. This is the background against which the opinion set out in this document should be examined. For the first time, it shows the general trends observed both at Community level and in the individual Member States concerned. To this end, a series of indicators based on the criteria set out in Articles 4 and 5 of the Directive has been developed to provide an objective analysis grid. Article 4 (European works): S Indicator 1: average transmission time reserved for European works by the European channels with the highest audience ratings5 in each Member State concerned. S Indicator 2: compliance rate of channels (achieving or exceeding the majority proportion) of all types, in each Member State concerned6. 3 http://europa.eu.int/comm/avpolicy/regul/twf/art45/art45-intro_en.htm 4 By way of illustration, section 2.2 of the guidelines states that it is not necessary for national reports to include data on channels broadcasting exclusively “news, sports events, games, advertising, teletext services and teleshopping”. 5 For each year under consideration, the audience share is based on the most recent figures published by the European Audiovisual Observatory: Statistical Yearbook 2000 (Volume 2) “Household audiovisual equipment, transmission, television audience”. Except in specific cases, all channels with over 3% audience share (whole day) over each of the two years under consideration were taken into account. 4 S Indicator 3: general trend, in terms of number of channels of all types, in the scheduling of European works over the reference period (1999-2000)7. Article 5 (European works by independent producers): S Indicator 1: average air time, or alternatively, depending on the choice made by the Member State when transposing the Directive, the average proportion of the programming budget allocated to European works by independent producers. S Indicator 2: compliance rate of channels of all types (achieving or exceeding the minimum of 10%) in the Member State concerned8. S Indicator 3: general trend, in terms of number of channels of all types, in the proportion of European works by independent producers broadcast in each Member State concerned over the reference period (1999-2000). S Indicator 4: average air time, or alternatively, depending on the choice made by the Member State when transposing the Directive, the proportion of the programming budget allocated to recent works by independent producers S Indicator 5: general trend, in terms of number of channels of all types, in the proportion

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