Television Across Europe: Industry Is Grappling with These Dynamic Processes
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usa-utan-1016-c-printphoto:Layout 1 10/27/2008 1:54 PM Page 1 MONITORING REPORT MONITORING REPORT Today’s pace of change in television has reached breakneck speed, affecting produc- tion, transmission, consumption, marketing, financing and ownership. Audiences fragment, owners consolidate, and technology converges: Europe’s audiovisual less independence channels, more Europe: across Television industry is grappling with these dynamic processes. To take the measure of these changes, the Open Society Institute has mapped the tel- TELEVISION ACROSS EUROPE evision landscape in nine countries: Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, the Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. TV across Europe 2008 is the result. MORE CHANNELS, LESS INDEPENDENCE The proliferation of content has increased the viewers’ freedom of choice. This is a real achievement, but is the public getting more quality or diversity? Editorial inde- pendence has deteriorated in most of the countries monitored. Governments still refuse to let public service broadcasters be independent, and have even clawed back the control that they ceded a few years ago. The studies also highlight that as digital switchover draws closer, established broadcasters have largely managed to exclude fresh competitors. Meanwhile, broadcast regulators have faced the new challenges by sticking their heads in the sand. OVERVIEW An Overview chapter points out the main trends that emerge from the country reports, and proposes feasible measures to tackle the problems identified. COUNTRY REPORTS: In 2005, the Open Society Institute published Television across Europe: regulation, policy and independence, which monitored broadcasting in 20 countries. It was ALBANIA widely acclaimed as unique in its range and rigour. This Follow-up Report covers BULGARIA nine of the original 20 countries, where broadcasting has undergone significant change in the intervening three years. It is both a sequel and a groundbreaking pub- CZECH REPUBLIC lication in its own right. ITALY “This excellent report lets light flood into the condition of broadcasting. LITHUANIA You can trust what it shows and you can understand what it tells us. … Political will and action depend on knowledge, and this report provides a POLAND gold standard of intelligent information.” REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA From the foreword by Jean Seaton, Professor of ROMANIA Media History, University of Westminster SLOVAKIA OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE 2008 Follow-up Reports 2008 OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATION EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program Media Program OSI Published by OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE Október 6. u. 12. H-1051 Budapest Hungary 400 West 59th Street New York, NY 10019 USA © OSI/EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program, 2008 All rights reserved. TM and Copyright © 2008 Open Society Institute EU MONITORING AND ADVOCACY PROGRAM Október 6. u. 12. H-1051 Budapest Hungary Website <www.eumap.org> <www.mediapolicy.org> ISBN: 978-1-891385-85-8 Copies of the book can be ordered from the EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program <[email protected]> Cover design by Eszter Stahl; photo by Getty Images Printed in Budapest, Hungary, 2008 Design & Layout by Q.E.D. Publishing incovers-081027:Elrendezés 1 10/27/2008 1:53 PM Page 1 MONITORING REPORT TELEVISION ACROSS EUROPE MOREMORE CHANNELS,CHANNELS, LESSLESS INDEPENDENCEINDEPENDENCE OVERVIEW COUNTRY REPORTS: ALBANIA BULGARIA CZECH REPUBLIC ITALY LITHUANIA POLAND REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA ROMANIA SLOVAKIA Follow-up Reports 2008 OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATION EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program Media Program TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................ 5 Preface ........................................................................... 7 Foreword ....................................................................... 9 Overview ..................................................................... 13 Albania ................................................................. 67 Bulgaria .............................................................. 109 Czech Republic ................................................... 149 Italy .................................................................... 191 Lithuania ............................................................ 223 Poland ................................................................ 267 Republic of Macedonia ....................................... 315 Romania ............................................................. 365 Slovakia .............................................................. 413 EU MONITORING AND ADVOCACY PROGRAM ( EUMAP) MEDIA PROGRAM 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledgements The EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program of the Open Society Institute and the Media Program of the Open Society Foundation wish to acknowledge the primary role of the following individuals in researching and drafting these monitoring reports. Final responsibility for the content of the reports rests with the Programs. Overview Marius Dragomir Project Manager and Editor Mark Thompson Editor Albania Ilda Londo Project Coordinator, Albanian Media Institute Bulgaria Assya Kavrakova Program Director, Open Society Institute – Sofia Czech Republic Eva Rybková Events Manager, Policy Association for an Open Society (PASOS) Italy Gianpietro Mazzoleni Professor, Faculty of Political Science, University of Milano Giulio Enea Vigevani Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Milano-Bicocca Lithuania Artūras Račas Director and Editor-in-chief, Baltic News Service (BNS) Poland Andrzej Krajewski Independent Consultant Republic of Macedonia Vesna Šopar Professor, European University - Republic of Macedonia Romania Manuela Preoteasa Managing partner, Euractiv.ro / HotNews.ro EU MONITORING AND ADVOCACY PROGRAM ( EUMAP) MEDIA PROGRAM 5 TELEVISION ACROSS EUROPE 2008 Slovakia Rastislav Kužel Executive Director, MEMO 98 Ivan Godársky MEMO 98 Editorial Consultant Dušan Reljić Senior Researcher, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin We thank the following organisations for their invaluable support throughout the process of developing the reports: Albanian Media Institute (Albania); Open Society Institute–Sofia (Bulgaria); Eurovisioni (Italy); Lithuanian Journalism Centre (Lithuania); Foundation Open Society Institute–Macedonia (Republic of Macedonia); Media Development Center (Republic of Macedonia); Center for Independent Journalism (Romania), Soros Foundation Romania (Romania), Media Monitoring Agency (Romania); MEMO 98 (Slovakia), Open Society Foundation–Bratislava (Slovakia). We also particularly thank the following individuals: Gazmend Ajdini, Roberto Belichanec, Stanislava Benická, Violeta Gligorovska, Rytis Juozapavičius, Nerijus Maliukevičius and Katarína Vajdová. In addition, we wish to acknowledge the following individuals and institutions for their contribution to the reports: IP International Marketing Committee, European Audiovisual Observatory, and the Association of Periodical Press Publishers (Slovakia). OSI Team Gordana Janković (Media Program) Program Director Biljana Tatomir (Media Program) Deputy Director Marius Dragomir (Media Program) Project Manager and Editor Mark Thompson (Media Program) Editor Katy Negrin (EUMAP) Program Manager Miriam Anati (EUMAP) Advocacy and Communications Andrea Gurubi Watterson (EUMAP) Program Coordinator Csilla Tóth (EUMAP) Program Assistant Joost van Beek (EUMAP) Website Manager Sergey Shabanov (EUMAP) Website Developer OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE 2008 6 PREFACE Preface In 2005, the Open Society Institute (OSI) published Television across Europe: regulation, policy and independence, a monitoring survey of broadcasting in 20 countries. This major project was inspired by the observation that television – a basic component and gauge of democracy – was undergoing rapid change throughout Europe. The reports covered the eight central and eastern European countries that joined the EU in May 2004 (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia); Bulgaria and Romania, which joined in 2007; two candidate countries (Croatia and Turkey); four older EU member States (France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom) and the potential EU candidate countries in south-eastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, and Serbia). The final reports included significant contributions received through comments and critique during the monitoring process. Widely acclaimed as unique in its range and rigour, the Television across Europe survey found that television stood on the brink of immense change – nowhere more than in the new democracies of central and eastern Europe. However much they may have wanted to ignore it, traditional broadcasters as well as governments in those countries were on the cusp of the ‘digital revolution’. Since 2005, the pace of change in television has reached breakneck speed, affecting the patterns and models of production, transmission, consumption, marketing, financing and ownership. In order to take the measure of these changes, OSI has revisited nine of the countries that were included in the 2005 monitoring, where broadcasting has undergone significant change in the intervening three years: Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, the Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. TV across Europe 2008: more channels, less independence maps the main changes in broadcasting legislation, policy and markets over the past three years,