May 8, 2017

Culture Committee MEPs have advocated tightening up the child protection provisions of EU rules on audiovisual media services and also those on advertising and promoting European audiovisual works.

Video-sharing platforms will have to take corrective measures if users flag any content as inciting violence, hatred or terrorism, MEPs agreed. To this end, these platforms would need to put in place an easy-to-use mechanism allowing users to report content and be informed of measures taken.

MEPs also proposed banning advertising and product placement for tobacco, electronic cigarettes and alcohol in children’s TV programmes and video-sharing platforms.

For TV advertising, MEPs agreed on new rules imposing a maximum 20% daily quota, giving broadcasters the flexibility of adjusting their advertising periods.

To reflect Europe’s cultural diversity, MEPs called for a 30% quota of European works in on-demand platform catalogues, instead of the 20% proposed by the EU Commission. This quota should include works in the languages of the countries where they are distributed.

Under the amended rules, EU Member States could ask on-demand platforms to contribute financially to the development of European audiovisual productions, either by investing directly in content or by contributing to national funds. Their contributions should be proportional to their revenues in the country where they would contribute.

Parliament as a whole will decide on 15 May in Strasbourg whether to open inter-institutional talks for the final approval of the legislation on the basis of the Committee’s proposals. The Council plans to adopt its negotiating mandate on 23 May. To read the European Parliament’s press release in full, click here.