EC: Two thirds of TV programs seen in Europe are of European origin

Media

TV broadcasters in European Union are dedicating around 63% of their air time to programs made in EU and 35% to independent works created by European producers, according to figures in a report covering the period 2007-2008 published by the European Commission (EC), on its site. The report is published by EC every two years and monitors the promotion of European works on TV on EU’s territory.

Romania’s broadcasters transmitted 63% and, respectively, 67.2% European works in 2007 and 2008 and 28.2% and 25.9% European works by independent producers in the same period of time.

Audiovisual Media Services Directive establishes a minimum proportion of works produced in the EU or made by independent European producers which every European broadcaster has to screen. This way, the Directive requires Member States to make sure that more than 50% of programming time should be made up of European works and 10% of either the transmission time or of the broadcaster’s programming budget should be devoted to independent productions.

According to the report, the average broadcasting time of European works in the EU was 62.6% in 2007 and 63.2% in 2008. Average transmission times varied between countries, from 27.9% for Cyprus to 85% for Poland in 2007 and from 30% for Cyprus to 83.11% for Poland in 2008.

The average share of independent producers’ works broadcast in all Member States was 35.3% in 2007 and 34.1% in 2008, ranging from 10.9% for Slovenia to 61.7% for Germany in 2007 and from 15.1% for Greece to 62.3% for Germany in 2008.

The 1989 Television without Frontiers Directive was updated by the AVMS Directive at the end of 2007 to reflect new developments in the broadcasting sector. According to the Directive, member states must ensure, where possible, that broadcasters registered on their territory reserve the majority of their transmission time for European works.