EU: Funding Transparency for Broadcasters

The European Commission has announced that it will pursue measures on the financing of public service broadcasting in MS, in apparent contradiction to announcements made late last month by the Commissioner for Competition, Karel van Miert that he was to drop action in this field due to MS opposition. The announcement comes after strong lobbying by private sector broadcasters who have called for the Commission to take swift action against MS who offered unfair competitive advantage to broadcasters receiving public funds. They cited a total of eight complaints lodged with the EC, six of which directly concern financing. The EC said that it will initiate inquiries in January relating to the complaints by Telecinco against RTVE in Spain, Mediaset against RAI in Italy and TF1 against France Télévision.