AVMSD REFIT: Background research published

The European Commission (DG CONNECT) has published, on 4 March 2016, several studies it had commissioned in order to prepare the revision of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD).

The main topics which are subject to analysis in these reports are the protection of minors, the promotion of European works, the regulation of advertising in a digital context as well as trends in on-demand services in the European context. The reports are part of the process of assessment of the AVMSD under the Regulatory Fitness (REFIT).

The purpose of the studies is to contribute to the ex-post evaluation of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and the Impact Assessment accompanying the proposal for a future revision of the AVMSD. They have been commissioned to different partners of the European Commission and are all free to download.

The following studies are now available for download:

• Study on the exposure of minors to alcohol advertising on TV and on online services (prepared for the European Commission by Ecorys) - This study provides an overview of minors' exposure to alcohol advertising on TV, on-demand services and other online services. It covers a number of EU Member States and an analysis of the content of some alcoholic beverages advertisements.

• On-demand Audiovisual Markets in the European Union (2014 and 2015 developments) (prepared for the European Commission by the European Audiovisual Observatory) - This study provides a well-defined set of information concerning viewing patterns online, online advertising, the EU Subscription Video-on-Demand (SVoD) market and the origin and visibility of EU films on VoD services.

The study gives inter alia insight into the share of EU films in 75 transactional VoD catalogues in the 28 EU Member States (and 16 SVoD catalogues) and reveals that US films dominate in VOD catalogues, while EU films constitute less than a third of film offering. With regard to the visibility of films on on-demand platforms, the results (based on another set of data) show that while the European films share of promotional spots seems in line with their share of catalogues, the promotion only benefits to a very limited number of films.

• Study on data and information on the costs and benefits of the Audiovisual Media Service Directive (AVMSD) (prepared for the European Commission by the European Audiovisual Observatory) - This document groups together separate reports concerning audiovisual services, data on market revenues and investments as well as legal information concerning the protection of minors.

The report on protection of minors in the EU28 looks specifically at the implementation approaches of the AVMS Directive with regard to classification systems; definitions of harmful content; tools and systems used by broadcasters and platform operators to support the protection of minors; and studies carried out in the field in the Member States.

• Link to the Commission's website