Mediated Democracy
August 24, 2005, Danish Architecture Center, Strandgade 27B, DK-1401 Copenhagen
Participation is free. Registration is required no later than August 15, aykj@hum.ku.dk
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Abstract
Frands Mortensen: The European Union and State Aid to Public Service Broadcasting
In the network society, media content is produced and distributed across national borders, and international controls and rules of the game are, therefore, decisive. In the European Union, the principles regarding state aid — not the directive ‘Television Without Frontiers’ — play the main role in the regulatory regime concerning broadcasting. This presentation, accordingly, sets out the actions that have been taken by the DG Competition and the Court on state aid to public service broadcasting during the period 1992-2005. The initiative to bring state-aid cases came from commercial television stations, many of them associated with the ACT. I note 26 complaints that have been brought before the Commission or the Court in this period. At first, the Commission tried to take no action at all, but was forced to do so by a decision by the Court (1998). Then the Commission made an attempt to declare that any state aid to public service broadcasting was not aid, but compensation (1996); also this was refused by the Court (2000). Next, the commission tried to work out general principles for public service programming, declaring that institutions with mixed funding could not broadcast sports and entertainment (1998). As this occurred just after the member states had agreed on the “Protocol on the system of public broadcasting in the member states” (1997), it was heavily criticized, and the Council of Ministers gave the Commission a reproof (1999). Then the Commission started examining the ad hoc aid schemes in many countries (1999), and in November 2001, it communicated a new set of principles for state aid to public service broadcasting. During 2003 and 2004, a series of decisions were made by the Commission, all of which declared the ad hoc-schemes compatible with the common market. (But two of the decisions had been brought before the Court.) Only two of the decisions from the Commission were negative: In Denmark, the state was overcompensating the public broadcaster TV 2/Danmark with EUR 84.4 million, which was not accepted, and as a consequence six extra cases are now pending before the Court; and, in the Netherlands . the Commission has estimated that the Dutch state has provided NOS with more funding (EUR 110 million) than necessary to finance the public service (the case is not closed). At the same time, the Commission started to investigate the existing aid procedure in many of the member states, and it has until now proposed improvements to Italian, Portuguese, French, Irish, Dutch, German. and Spanish authorities. In conclusion, I will discuss the principles for accepting state aid to public service broadcasting in light of the famous Altmark ruling from July 2003.