EU: ECJ Rules Against Broadcast Blocks

In a key ruling on 29 May, the European Court of Justice held that EU countries may not unilaterally block television broadcasts transmitted from other MS, even if they do not meet European-based programming rules. Under the EU’s Broadcasting Directive, EU television channels are required to devote over half their screen time to European programmes “where practicable”. But it is the EU country where the programmer is legally established that decides whether it is practicable to meet the quota, not the country that receives the broadcast, the Court said, confirming an earlier ruling involving the Commission and the UK. The ruling came during a case in which Belgium took action against Paul Denuit, managing director of the Coditel cable network, for allegedly violating Belgian legislation by broadcasting the TNT Cartoon Network from London over its network. Belgium’s Minister for Communications prohibited the TNT Cartoon network because it “consists essentially of programmes produced outside the European Union and of commercial advertising.”