Malta making slow progress

Malta is progressing slowly on the introduction of new EU television rules meant to liberalise the growing market, and the European Commission is still awaiting its notification on the situation.

The rules are geared to remove outdated and bureaucratic restrictions on the provision of digital television over internet, video on demand and mobile television services.

A Commission exercise, analysing the state of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive's implementation, which must be fully transposed by all member states by the end of this year, found Malta was still in consultation stage and draft legislations still had to be presented to Parliament.

Member states were given two years to implement this directive.

The Malta Communications Authority, which is entrusted with the legislation's regulatory aspect, has just concluded the public consultation process and is expected to present draft amendments to the existing law to the ministry responsible for broadcasting by the end of this month.

It is not yet known when the new legislation will be presented to Parliament.

Malta was not the only member state considered to be progressing slowly on this dossier, and according to the EU executive, Romania is the only country that has fully adopted the new directive.

However, according to the Commission, other member states were in a more advanced stage than Malta. Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, The Netherlands and Portugal have all prepared the necessary draft legislations and presented them to Parliament. On the other hand, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia and Spain have not yet held public consultations on the new rules.

EU Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said the Commission expected faster implementation.

"I am concerned that some member states appear to see the new rules as an excuse for adding red tape. We have created better regulation at EU level and I expect member states to do the same at national level," she stressed.

The new directive provides a modern, competition-friendly set of rules for Europe's providers of television and similar services, by giving more flexibility for financing audiovisual content with new forms of advertising.

While continuing to ensure a high level of consumer protection, the new directive also creates a level playing field for all companies that offer on-demand audiovisual services, allowing them to profit from Europe's single market.

The directive also reduces red tape and modernises rules on television advertising. The amount of advertising spots permitted on television will remain limited to 12 minutes in any given hour, so viewers will not be overwhelmed by excessive advertising. Films, current affairs programmes and news cannot be interrupted by adverts more than once for each period of 30 minutes.

At the same time, service providers are given more flexibility regarding advertising breaks during other types of programmes, notably, with the abolition of the rule obliging broadcasters to have 20 minutes between each break during the same programme.