If the transposition of the EC Directive were to be compared with a competition, it would be between the national legislatures to see which has produced the best domestic law. Many different yardsticks could be used to measure which law is the "best", such as the interests of the legislature or those to whom the provisions are directed, the rights to be protected, the interests of society or - perhaps in first place in the EC context - its benefit for the EC's internal market. However, the different interests involved are just one aspect of this publication, which also deals with the means of transposing the Directive, that is to say the choice and characteristics of the models selected and the actual steps taken to implement the provisions and subsequently monitor the results. These aspects are also important when it comes to assessing the quality of the domestic law in each case.A better understanding of the Directive: interests to be protectedThe recitals of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive mention a number of interests that the Directive wishes to serve with the Community-law framework that has been laid down. In the very first recital, the Directive mentions the competition conditions and legal certainty for European companies and services in the context of the information technologies and the media and points out the (public) interest in cultural and linguistic diversity. Other recitals refer to the situation of small and medium sized companies or emphasise the public interest in having a right to information, the public interest in media pluralism, in the protection of minors, in consumer protection, and in raising awareness and in fostering media literacy. These interests are seen in the context of the general digitisation of society, which has led both to the emergence of new services and to the need to revise existing regulations. This IRIS Special contains a large amount of information on how national solutions take into account the various interests, especially with regard to regulating non-linear services and in areas for which national rules can be relaxed in the future.