EU: EC Acts on Public TV Funding

In reaction to the ECJ´s recent criticism of EC inaction, Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert, has announced that the EC is drawing up a working paper on ‘State Aid to Public Television Stations’. Speaking at a press conference last week, Van Miert said that he intends to draw up guidelines to enable the EC to decide on a series of complaints lodged by private television stations against public ones on the question of state funding. The EC is also bound to respect the protocol annexed to the Amsterdam Treaty, at the request of several EU countries wanting to guarantee the role of public service broadcasting.

The EC´s working paper examines both the dual financing of the public television stations – contributions by the State and advertising revenue – and the use of the money for public service programmes. According to indications published in the press, the likely outcome will be to prohibit public television stations from using State aid to finance the broadcast of popular televised shows or the broadcasting of major events on continuous news stations. Public stations would have to justify their use of funds paid by the State and explain the origin of their commercial revenue, as well as the way in which it is used.