This is a big victory for the proponents of less online video/TV regulation: The European Commission, which has been pushing changes its Television Without Frontiers directive, a law written in 1989, to take account of online video/TV market, is toning down the proposal, after tough opposition from UK and others in Europe, reports IHT. The new proposal will be tabled today in front of representatives of the 25 member states of the EU...they are scheduled to meet in Brussels to try to hash out some of the most contentious issues.
The latest proposal, circulated to EU governments last week, says that the regulations would apply TV broadcast rules, including quotas for European production and limits on advertising, to VOD and other television-like new media, but will cover only material over which a media organization exercises “editorial responsibility.”...this means it will potentially exempt personal sites, blogs and webcams from regulation, the original fear of many opponents. Still, some Internet companies say that even the revised rules remain vague and problematic, but the British government has indicated that it can live with the proposed changes.
Also, according to the story, Britain agreed to the inclusion of VOD in the new directive in return for assurances that programming would continue to be regulated in the European country in which it originates, rather than the place in which it is heard or viewed.