The European Parliament’s culture and education committee has approved a ‘trilogue’ political agreement on revision of the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive. The committee’s endorsement of the proposals opens the way for a plenary vote in the parliament later this year. European parliamentary negotiators led by MEP Sabine Verheyen and the Bulgarian presidency of the […]
Public and commercial broadcasters are divided over the merits of the final political agreement on the EU’s revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive, with public broadcaster organization the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) welcoming the result of the final review and commercial broadcaster group the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT) slamming it as “a missed […]
The European Commission has confirmed its approval of Liberty Global’s acquisition of Dutch cable operator Ziggo in the Netherlands. The EC’s move follows annulment of its earlier approval of the 2014 acquisition by the EU General Court last year. The EC originally approved the merger of UPC Netherlands and Ziggo subject to the condition that […]
The European Parliament, European Council and the European Commission have struck a preliminary deal on revisions to the audiovisual media services directive that will see new quotas imposed on subscription video-on-demand services. The new rules will include an obligation on OTT TV services, promoted by the Parliament, to respect a quota of 30% for European […]
Altice has said it will appeal a decision by the European Commission to fine it €124.5 million for ‘gun jumping’ the regulatory green light to acquire PT Telecom in Portugal in June 2015. The EC ruled that Altice infringed the ‘prior notification obligation’ relating to mergers and acquisitions. The Commission said that Altice had made […]
New rules on content portability across the European Union will come into force on April 1, enabling users of online audiovisual services to view content while outside their home country within the EU. The new rules will apply only to pay service, although providers of free-to-view services may opt in. Providers of online content services […]
An EU High-Level Experts Group has called for a new code of principles that online platforms should submit to in order to combat the phenomenon of ‘fake news’ and disinformation. The group’s report, which was presented by chairwoman Madeleine de Cock Buning to European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, calls for the code to embrace 10 key […]
A group of 50 European service providers, media groups and publishers have called for an urgent review of the EU’s proposed e-privacy regulation, arguing that it will give more power and advantage to global internet giants and penalise providers of advertising-dependent services in Europe as well as new market entrants. The group of media companies […]
European Commissioner for digital Mariya Gabriel has called for the creation of a searchable pan-European directory of films that are available online to be set up by the end of this year as part of the EC’s #Digital4Culture initiative. Speaking at the Berlinale 2018 European Film Forum, Gabriel said that the catalogue would initially be […]
European Commission vice-president Andrus Ansip has reiterated a call for the ‘country of origin’ principle to be extended to enable content portability across the European Single Market, despite moves by the European Parliament to exempt the bulk of media content from new digital single market rules. In a blog posting ahead of the opening of […]
