At the end of 2011, the European Commission will report for the first time on the application of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. The Commission's letters to member states asking for information in this connection were unusually long and detailed, thus indicating the difficulties experienced in incorporating the Directive into domestic law. These difficulties mainly arise with respect to regulating non-linear audiovisual media services.For this reason, in April 2011 the European Audiovisual Observatory and the Institute for European Media Law invited 25 experts on audiovisual media law to a workshop at which an assessment was made of the situation with regard to the regulation of on-demand audiovisual services. The principal questions for discussion were how the new provisions on the scope of the Directive have been incorporated into domestic law and how member states have handled the possibility of promoting the self- or co-regulation of on-demand audiovisual services.The papers on which the workshop was based and a detailed report on the discussions that followed the various contributions are summarised in this IRIS Special and form a comprehensive overview of the possible regulation. After reading this IRIS Special, the somewhat provocative question in the title, "Chaos or Coherence?", can probably be answered by establishing that the regulatory landscape in Europe is characterised by both chaos and coherence.
This IRIS Special focuses on:
- Definitions of on-demand audiovisual services in EU member states
- The demarcation lines between the various types of media service
- Limits to the application of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive
- The involvement or exclusion of intermediaries in the regulation
- The meaning of "editorial responsibility" and the "principal purpose" of audiovisual services
- The technical dimension of on-demand services via networked devices
- The transposition of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive in two selected EU member states, the Netherlands and Italy
- Experience of self- and co-regulation in the case of the protection of minors and commercial communication in the United Kingdom and Germany
- Media users' expectations with regard to regulation
- Assessment by the business world of the Directive and of other provisions relevant for on-demand services
- The position of the legislature and the regulatory authorities
- Summary of the views of 25 experts from all over Europe
