EU: Television Without Frontiers (TWF) Directive

A committee comprising European Parliament and Council representatives has agreed to revisions to the 1989 TWF Directive. Besides the main impact of the revisions – concerning unencoded broadcasts of major sporting events, and abandonment of the V-Chip proposal – it has become clear that the revised Directive will affect the advertising industry in other respects, as the following details show:

• “self-promotion” is now included within the definition of advertising and thus subject to the terms of the Directive. The 20% time limit given to advertising for each transmission hour has been clarified to mean the clock hour
• teleshopping is now specifically added to the Directive and thus subject to the same rules as to advertising generally. Teleshopping spots may be broadcast up to eight times per day, must be clearly identifiable, and last at least 15 minutes. Altogether they must not exceed 3 hours per day and are limited to a maximum of 20% of daily transmission time
• While rejecting the V-Chip, the Conciliation Committee nevertheless agreed that easily identifiable warnings and visual symbols must precede or be used throughout the transmission of an unencoded broadcast which is “likely” to harm minors. The Commission has one year to prepare a report on various methods to enable parental control over minors’ access to television broadcasts, including the V-Chip
• Medicines and medical treatments may not be promoted through TV sponsorship

Concerning the broadcasting of sports events, the revised Directive will only apply to contracts made between broadcasters and sports organisations after the Directive is adopted, expected to be the first week of June 1997, and will apply to sports events occurring after the Directive has been transposed into national law of the Member States, which is expected to be December 1998