Supported by the overwhelming majority of CoR members, the opinion of the Member of Nagykanizsa Municipal Council (PES/Hungary) responds to the European Commission's revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), which proposes more balanced rules applying to traditional broadcasters, video-on-demand providers and video-sharing platforms.
While welcoming the Commission proposal overall, the rapporteur regrets that the new directive does not take the regional dimension into consideration. He welcomes the amendment on derogations from the country of origin principle, which allow the interests of the destination country to be taken into account. Moreover, he underlines the need to involve local and regional authorities in implementing the directive, as in several Member States, some local and regional bodies own media services companies.
Jácint Horváth insists that the independence of national regulatory authorities, both from public authorities, audiovisual actors and political parties, is a cornerstone of the European Audiovisual Media Regulation. At the same time, he welcomes the strengthened role of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA), which is composed of national independent regulatory authorities in the field of audiovisual media services, and advises and assists the Commission in ensuring the consistent implementation of the Directive in all Member States.
"National regulatory authorities must have enough room for manoeuvre for national and sub-national decision-making, but ERGA should also play its role to the full when it comes to guaranteeing the diversity of information and a pluralistic media market in the EU", argues the rapporteur. The CoR opinion expresses in this regard concerns over the fact that the proposed directive does not address transparency of media ownership, media concentration and conflicts of interest, all of which have a major impact upon media pluralism and media freedom.
The CoR opinion criticises the lack of clarity of the regulatory framework applicable on two cases: first, video sharing platforms, whose provider has no interest in moving to European Union territory, but makes their service available to European citizens; and second, the resale of content outside of infrastructure (over-the-top services). However, the opinion welcomes the fact that the revised directive extends its field of application to video sharing platform services and strengthens the protection for minors.
