On 1 June 2010, Act No. 132/2010 Coll., on audiovisual media services on demand and amending certain acts (the Act on Audiovisual Media Services on Demand), entered into force. The adoption of this Act was necessitated by the need to transpose Directive 2007/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on audiovisual media services. The European institutions set themselves the objective of facilitating the creation of a single information area for all audiovisual media services, that is, both for television broadcasting services, referred to as linear services, and for audiovisual media services on demand, referred to as non-linear services. The existing legal regulation under Council Directive 89/552/EEC on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities, as amended by Directive 97/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, was outdated in relation to the current situation, as it regulated only the pursuit of television broadcasting activities and not the rapidly developing audiovisual media services on demand (on-line video).

What is the purpose of this new legal regulation? The Act is intended to ensure a technologically neutral manner of regulation and equal conditions of competition for providers of audiovisual media services, that is, an approach which will not distinguish between different platforms for the delivery of similar audiovisual media content, whilst nevertheless taking into account the different nature of linear and non-linear services (that is, the different nature of audiovisual media services and television broadcasting). The new legal regulation concerns areas of regulation of content disseminated by electronic means and, in part, also television broadcasting in the case of providing short news extracts from the transmission of events which are the subject of increased public interest.

For clarification, it is necessary to state that an audiovisual media service is considered to be an information society service, the principal purpose of which is the provision of programmes to the public for the purpose of informing, entertaining or educating, and which enables the viewing of programmes at a moment chosen by the user and at his individual request on the basis of a catalogue of programmes compiled by the provider of the audiovisual media service on demand. The difference between these services and television broadcasting therefore lies primarily in the different degree of freedom of choice of programmes and control of content on the part of the recipient of the service; however, on the other hand, they have in common with television broadcasting the fact that they are intended for reception by a significant part of the general public and could have a clear impact on it.

In other words, the Act on Audiovisual Media Services introduces regulation and conditions for the provision of commercial video services on the internet, namely the regulation of websites containing videos whose operator operates them as a paid service or websites which, whilst freely accessible, have advertising space sold by the operator, and at the same time their content is produced by an editorial team for which the operator bears responsibility, and furthermore the content of the website is structured. The Act thus places on the same level operators of traditional television stations with operators of video portals on the internet or, for example, domestic video rental services, whether they operate on the basis of digital television via internet protocol or directly via the web. By way of example, the Act lays down, for instance, rules for advertising on websites (cigarettes and other tobacco products may not be promoted, significant restrictions apply to advertising aimed at children, etc.). The legal regulation of this Act applies only to providers of audiovisual media services with registered offices in the Czech Republic, or to those providers who, whilst not having registered offices in the domestic territory, technically convey the service through the Czech Republic to their customers.

Under the new legal regulation, the provision of audiovisual media services is not conditional upon obtaining a licence or registration. The Act regulates only the obligation of the provider of this service to notify the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting within a specified period of certain data concerning its service, with the Council maintaining a register of providers of these services. A provider registered with the Council must then take into account that the Council is authorised to carry out random checks of its production and compliance with the Act. In the event of a breach of the Act, the Council may impose a fine on the operator of up to two million Czech crowns.

The Act introduces and defines the concept of “audiovisual commercial communication” and at the same time permits the use of the institute of product placement as a special form of audiovisual commercial communication. The Act also newly permits sponsorship not only of individual programmes but also of an audiovisual media service, i.e. television broadcasting or an audiovisual media service on demand, as a whole.

In conclusion, we state that the Act newly introduces so-called “product placement”, whereby, upon fulfilment of exhaustively defined conditions by the Act, the placement of a specific product or brand in the plot of a programme is permitted, both for the area of production of television programmes and programmes intended for audiovisual media services on demand.

This text was translated from Czech to English using an AI translator.