After 18 months of negotiation, the European Council and Parliament finally reached a political agreement on 24 May on the new EU Directive relating to audiovisual media services without frontiers, whose entry into force is expected by the end of the year. Member states will then have a period of 24 months to transpose the new directive into their domestic legislation. If the keystone of the new legislation remains “the principle of country of origin”, according to which each member state may adopt restrictive measures against broadcasters whose transmissions violate the rules of the state for which they were made, the new Directive also makes some important innovations, especially in terms of implementing a legal framework that would permit the sector to adapt to technological and market changes: the scope of the Directive extends to all audiovisual media services; the regulations are less detailed and more flexible; and the discipline for the funding of audiovisual media intends to increase financial allocations to improve the production of contents, reinforce competitiveness and guarantee the fundamental values of the EU (protection of minors, self-regulation, and the banning of works with a racist and anti-religious content).
