EU Closes Flemish, Irish Public Broadcaster Investigations

BRUSSELS, February 27: The
European Commission has closed its investigations into the financing of Flemish
public-service broadcaster VRT and Irish state broadcasters RTE and TG4.

In Belgium, the Commission
says that authorities have agreed to clarify the terms of VRT’s remit and put
mechanisms in place to ensure that the broadcaster only receives funding for
those activities that do fulfill the public-service mandate. In addition, a
framework for merchandising and related activities will help to clarify which
services are commercial. An independent organization will check that VRT is
living up to its role as a pubcaster. And a public consultation on VRT's
public-service remit will be carried out every five years, before a new
management contract is signed between the government and the broadcaster. Belgium
has 12 months to implement the new conditions.

Competition Commissioner
Neelie Kroes commented: “The new system will provide more transparency,
proportionality and accountability and public funding will be limited to what
is necessary for VRT to fulfill its public-service mission without adverse
effects on competition.”

The investigation stems
back to 2004, when the Commission received complaints about the financing of VRT,
with commercial competitors arguing that that there was no proportionate
relationship between the public funding VRT receives for its public-service
remit and the costs of those services. The investigation was initiated in July
2006.

The Commission has
concluded a similar case in Ireland, where the government has also pledged to
clarify RTE’s and TG4’s mandates and ensure transparency. The commitments must
be made into national law by December 2008, the Commission says.

A complaint about
public-service financing in Ireland was received by the Commission in March
2005. The private competitor argued that the remit of the public broadcasters
was not sufficiently precise and that they were not properly entrusted with
public-service obligations. A complaint was also lodged about a lack of
transparency. The Irish government submitted its proposals for a new system
last month. The amendments include public-value assessments, an independent
body to ensure that the remit is being met, transparent accounts and enhanced
controls to prevent overcompensation and cross-subsidization of commercial
activities, and safeguards to ensure that public broadcasters carry out their
commercial activities on market terms.

—By Mansha Daswani