Europe Strict On P'caster Regs

European governments are far stricter with public-service broadcasters than their commercial rivals when it comes to rules and quotas, according to a report published Thursday by the European Audiovisual Observatory.

Public-service broadcasting and license-fee financing are often taken as justification for interfering in broadcasters' programming auto-nomy in the interests of media pluralism and the promotion of culture, the report said.

But it said that public-service broadcasters in most European countries are hampered when it comes to competing for audience share as they are obliged to transmit culture-related programs and to promote local culture and works.

However, the report said such programming-oriented requirements are often loosely formulated and leave the broadcasters a considerable margin of discretion.

"This is to some extent inevitable given that broadcasters' programming freedom enjoys different levels of protection under different legal systems," the report said. "The decisive factor is thus how well ... broadcasters translate their obligations into practice in the day-to-day business of program transmission."

The report notes that public-service broadcasters are often criticized for "dumbing down" by cutting cultural programs out of their schedules or screening them at unpopular times. However, broadcasters sometimes balance that out by setting up niche culture channels like the 3sat channel run by German, Austrian and Swiss broadcasting companies, or the specialized public-service channels TVR Cultural in Romania and TVP Kultura in Poland.

Under European Union rules, both public-service and commercial broadcasters already are obliged to ensure that at least half of all broadcasts are European productions and that independent European producers are granted at least 10% of broadcast time.

Many governments impose additional cultural requirements on national broadcasters, including rules that ensure channels offering relevant content are favored in license awards.

For example, the franchise charter for French public-service broadcaster France 2 states that at least 15 dance or drama performances must be screened every year. By contrast, commercial broadcasters are subject to no such obligations — apart from the requirement that TF1 transmit at least 10 hours of concerts by French orchestras every year.