Magazine / Media / Television / Article | 18/06/2008

Getting the big picture

Through the reworking of the "Television Without Frontiers” directive, the European Union hopes to break down national barriers and frameworks and create a pan-European distribution strategy. What are the chances of success?

The media, developed in the past on a purely national basis, is still the strongest in Europe. And even when there is big news, it is immediately shattered into 27 pieces along strictly national lines, and thus looses its real impact. But for how long can this national approach remain prevalent?

Photo: mem-film.de (Photocase)

As for facts and figures on European media, the audiovisual sector directly employs over one million people in the European Union. Television is the most important source of information and entertainment in European societies: 98 per cent of homes have a television, and the average European watches over 200 minutes of television per day.

Attitudes and barriers

Despite speeches and studies on the subject of the Internet, TV, newspapers and many other forms of communication, Europe still lacks clarity when it comes to deciding what to broadcast, what to publish, and, in the end, what to do. In fact, the media does appear to be strong: most European state broadcasters are funded through a mix of state money and advertising. They are still holding their own, despite the onslaught, which began in the early 1980s, of privately owned media corporations.
Nevertheless, public broadcasters think that the fragmentation of the market along national lines is helping to maintain their survival. The paradox is that they are using cultural differences as protectionist barriers; in this they are aided by a resurgence of chauvinism in Europe, by anti-globalisation and by xenophobic attitudes. All Europe's national media try to exploit these sentiments because they have discovered that stereotypes sell well.

Creating a single market

The European Union has discovered that since the setback with the Constitutional Treaty in 2005, winning the hearts and minds of the public poses a tough challenge. As a consequence, it has decided to take action in order to smash the barriers.
And, as incredible as it may seem, so far European institutions have adopted a more open-minded approach to the problem than other European media actors. This is due more to the vacuity of national public and private media companies than to a particularly skilled approach by Brussels. European institutions seem to be aware of the importance of developing a pan-European media market.

Television without frontiers?

The further development of the 1997 "Television Without Frontiers” (TVWF) directive is a clear attempt to tackle Europe's fragmented nation-based media market, both from a business and a cultural point of view. As far as business and media market organisation is concerned, TVWF is based on the free movement of European television programmes within the internal market. In more concrete terms, this directive establishes that member states cannot restrict retransmission on their territory of television programmes from other member states. It also establishes broadcasting and production quotas.
According to the directive, member states must ensure that broadcasters reserve a majority of their transmission time for European works, excluding the time allocated to news, sports events, games, advertising and teletext and teleshopping services.

No more than 15 percent for advertising per day

Broadcasters must also reserve at least 10 percent of their transmission time or 10 percent of their programming budget for European productions by independent producers. There are provisions concerning advertising as well: it is limited to a maximum of 15 percent of daily transmission time, and 20 percent within a one-hour period. Moreover, it must comply with certain criteria regarding advertisements for alcoholic beverages.
In August 2006, the European Commission noted that "the average broadcasting time reserved for European productions by European public broadcasters was just under 63 percent in 2004.” This was the first time that the level of programming of European material had fallen slightly in Europe. However, according to the Commission, works by independent producers "substantially increased on all European channels during the reference period (about 31.5 percent) … (Moreover,) the average proportion of recent European works by independent producers is increasing on television channels in the member states.”

Common distribution strategy

Another step forward was taken by the EU with the implementation of MEDIA 2007. This is a new programme of support for the European audiovisual sector, combining two parts of the previous MEDIA Plus and MEDIA Training programmes. It encompasses the development, distribution and promotion of European audiovisual material, and has been allocated a budget of almost 755 million euros for the period 2007-13.
The European Union aims to establish a European distribution strategy by encouraging distributors to invest in the co-production, acquisition and promotion of non-national European films and to set up coordinated marketing strategies. The objective is to breach the national framework by shifting to a pan-European one, by offering incentives for the export, distribution and cinema screening of non-national European films.

Discovering one's own identity

In this way European institutions hope to create a European media market. Establishing non-national productions of fiction and non-fiction films would appear to be a step in the right direction, but many people could claim that the EU is wasting public funding. Clearly, this is the price that has to be paid for the creation of a European media market, and one might well argue that it is the role of the European institutions to boost areas that are lagging behind, such as the European media market.
The European media market urgently needs more cohesion among public and private broadcasters in several European countries. First of all, it needs a core group of truly pan-European media with a supranational role and inspired by Eurovision and European public broadcasters.
European media is also a matter of content. Europeans need to start discovering themselves through their own films and their own news. Moreover, Europe needs to develop clear market rules to allow media groups to invest in other countries and overcome cultural barriers.

Shortened version of a text from the second culture report Progress Europe titled "Europe in the Media – Media in Europe”, published in June 2008 by the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, ifa) and the Robert Bosch Foundation. Available for free at www.ifa.de

Sergio Cantone

Sergio Cantone, born 1964, is a Brussels correspondent for the pan-European television channel Euronews. Before coming to Euronews he worked as a broadcaster and ...
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