The draft Audiovisual Media Services (AMS) Directive, published in December 2005, was met with some alarm. It sought to extend the existing 'Television without Frontiers' Directive to new services which were seen to be competing for audience and revenue. In doing so it would have introduced inappropriate regulation on the new media sector. There have now been some changes to the original draft and a tightening of the definition of "television like" services. Although an improvement, the Committee is concerned that there is still not enough legal certainty. They are also worried about the need to defend the 'Country of Origin' approach to single market legislation and reject the idea that regulators should act to preserve the market dominance of existing players from new entrants. They are also unconvinced of the need for any quantitative restriction on advertising.

Containing state-of-the-art contributions on the various domains of European media policies, this Handbook deals with theoretical approaches to European media policy: its historical development; specific policies for film, television, radio and the Internet; and international aspects of the fragmented policy domain.

Since 1982 the European Parliament has been urging the European Commission to introduce a discussion paper on the creation of a common market in radio and TV in the Community that meets the new functions of direct broadcasting by satellite (DBS) and cable television.

This significantly revised and updated second edition addresses the rapid development of EU copyright law in relation to the advancement of new technologies, the need for a borderless digital market and the considerable number of EU legal instruments enacted as a result. Taking a comparative approach, the Commentary provides comprehensive coverage and in-depth commentary on each of the EU legal instruments and policies, both from an EU and an international perspective. Alongside full legislative analysis and article-by-article commentary, the Commentary illustrates the underlying basic principles of free movement and non-discrimination and provides insights into the influence of copyright on other areas of EU policy, including telecoms and bilateral trade agreements.

Addresses a critical analysis of major media policies in the European Union and Council of Europe at the period of profound changes affecting both media environments and use, as well as the logic of media policy-making and reconfiguration of traditional regulatory models. The analytical problem-related approach seems to better reflect a media policy process as an interrelated part of European integration, formation of European citizenship, and exercise of communication rights within the European communicative space. The question of normative expectations is to be compared in this case with media policy rationales, mechanisms of implementation (transposing rules from EU to national levels), and outcomes.

This unique textbook offers a comprehensive overview of European and international media law, and how globalised communication has shaped it.