Regulatory structures
IRIS Plus 2013-4: What Is an On-demand Service?
Few songwriters have captured the presentiment of change as Bob Dylan in his song "The Times They Are A-Changin'". Although written in a very particular period of the twentieth Century, its message is universal and therefore can be applied to virtually any moment in time. Indeed, the fight...
IRIS Special 2012: Converged Markets - Converged Power? Regulation and Case Law
Eleven years ago, the European Audiovisual Observatory published the IRIS Special entitled “Television and Media Concentration”. Back then it still seemed meaningful to restrict the publication to the regulation of traditional forms of concentration in the broadcasting sector and, to this end,...
IRIS Themes - Vol. II - Freedom of Expression and the Media: Standard-setting by the Council of Europe (II) Parliamentary Assembly
This e-book provides valuable insights into the work of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on freedom of expression and the media. It summarises the many positions adopted by the PACE since June 1995 in no less than 49 official documents designed to guide the member states...
IRIS Themes - Vol. I - Freedom of Expression and the Media: Standard-setting by the Council of Europe (I) Committee of Ministers
This e-book provides valuable insights into the work of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on freedom of expression and the media. It summarises the many principles and normative requirements adopted by the Council since November 1994 in no less than 57 official documents...
IRIS Plus 2010-6: Switchover to the Digital Dividend
Like Siamese twins, the switchover to digital television is inseparable from the spectrum liberated as a result of the process. The twin of the switchover is called digital dividend. If we look closer at these twins, we realize that they are non-identical, as far as at least one important point...
IRIS Plus 2010-4: Public Service Media: Money for Content
There have been many public statements on the funding of public service broadcasting and the expectations associated with it. As far as the European Union is concerned, mention might be made of the Communication from the Commission of 27 October 2009 on the application of state aid rules to...
IRIS Plus 2010-2: Digital Cinema
The European cinema of the near future will be digital. This much seems to be agreed upon by anyone who has a say in the matter. But the road there requires special efforts and may indeed be long and winding. This IRIS plus asks where we stand in the roll-out of digital cinema and it does so with...
IRIS Special 2010: The Regulatory Framework for Audiovisual Media Services in Russia
2009 saw a steady flow of information on the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive and one does not need a crystal ball to predict the next wave of information that will spill over our desks in 2010, be it to tell us about transposition and implementation or about EU enforcement measures. The...
IRIS Plus 2010-1: Digital Television
Imagine turning on your television and not receiving any signal. For an increasing number of television viewers this could have been the case had they not re-equipped themselves for digital television. To mention only the early birds: Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden completed the...
IRIS Plus 2009-6: The "Telecoms Review": New Impetus for Audiovisual Media?
This IRIS plus examines the review of the European telecommunications regulatory framework. The lead article is as multilayered as the theme itself. Market regulation, spectrum policy, new distribution methods, interoperability, network neutrality, investment protection, "must-carry" obligations,...