News 

The European Parliament's culture committee on Monday voted to reform the bloc's 'television without frontiers' law that was introduced in an age when people watched TV on analogue sets in their living rooms.

In a digital world people also view programmes over the Web, cable and mobile phones on a myriad of channels, making advertising money harder to chase.

The reform, on which full European Parliament and member states will have the final say, would allow adverts every 30 minutes in films, more frequently than at present.

It extends existing rules on protecting children and stopping incitement to hatred and other abuses to all audiovisual content no matter how it is delivered.

Product placement is common in American shows and helps top up production funds. It is already allowed in some EU states, but lawmakers on the left want to ban it and leave advert frequencies unchanged.

But a socialist party source said it was necessary to protect consumers by having a clear line between ads and content.

'I

ADVERTISEMENT

suppose in the vote it will be the position of the left that wins,' said Ruth Hieronymi, the centre-right deputy steering the bill through the assembly. She hoped that would change before the full parliament vote in December.

'To support free-to-air television it's necessary to have some liberalisation in advertising rules,' she told Reuters.

EU member states, who have joint say with the Parliament, also meet on Monday to discuss the reform.

A compromise put forward by the Finnish presidency would allow states to introduce product placement for fictional or light entertainment but not children's programmes, an EU diplomat said. It also backs liberalisation of advertising.

A key principle in the reform that broadcasters should be regulated only by a home country watchdog appears to be generally accepted by states and lawmakers, Hieronymi and EU diplomats said.

But TV companies fear the reform gives a host country watchdog too much leeway to insist that a broadcaster from another member state should also abide by some of its rules as well.

'It's about denationalisation of European media policy. We believe it would go against EU internal market rules,' said Ross Biggam of commercial TV lobby group ACT.

Hieronymi said consensus is emerging in parliament and member states that the new rules should only apply to moving images that have the feel of a television service and involved 'editorial responsibility' in their production.

This would exclude video blogs, private emails or popular services such as YouTube, a video-sharing site that is being bought by Google, Hieronymi said.