EU: Council of Europe endorses TVWF

The EU’s “Television without Frontiers” directive, aimed at ensuring the free movement of television programmes in the single market, has been extended to other European countries through a new Council of Europe convention. Negotiated in parallel with “Television without Frontiers”, the Council´s 1989 Convention on Cross-Border Television has been ratified by 18 countries (Austria, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, the Holy See, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom) and potentially covers 47 others. A spokesman for the Council of Europe said “After last year’s review of the EU directive, it became necessary to amend the convention as a means of maintaining coherence between the two instruments.” The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe consequently adopted an amending protocol to the convention in early September. It will be opened for signature on 1 October and will enter into force two years after that date at the latest. The main areas covered by the changes to the Convention are: the definition of advertising and self-promotion activities; TV home shopping; sponsorship; jurisdiction; abuse of rights granted by the convention; public access to sports events; and broadcasting delay for films.