The European Commission’s revision of the Television Without Frontiers Directive to extend it to most audio-visual material has caused great concern in the UK where the Government, Ofcom and most of industry have seen this as an unnecessary and unhelpful set of proposals that fails to understand the dynamics of technological convergence and the new media industry. However, it is clear that the UK is effectively alone in opposing the new Directive and so, since the Liverpool conference, there has been a recognition that the new Directive is going to happen, the UK can live with it, but the best approach is to see how best self-regulatory mechanisms can give effect to the new regime in so far as they do not already do so.

In this spirit, Ofcom asked the Broadband Stakeholder Group to convene a discussion of parties involving in self-regulatory and co-regulatory mechanisms and this informal forum has been led by Malcolm Taylor, the Chairman of the Regulatory Affairs Group of BSG. The first meeting on 1 November had in attendance representatives from the Advertising Association, the Association for Television on Demand (ATVOD), the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) and the Mobile Broadband Association plus colleagues from DCMS, DTI and Ofcom. A further meeting is to be held in January. On this occasion, further organisations will be invited, notably the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), the Independent Mobile Classification Body (IMCB), the premium rate regulator ICSTIS, the Digital Content Forum (DCF), and a body representing the online gaming industry such as the Video Standards Council.

Meanwhile this week, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) held a members forum on the proposed new Directive to which they invited a number of self-regulatory bodies: the Advertising Standards Authority, the Video Standards Council and the Internet Watch Foundation (which I represented) plus Ofcom. There is a concern that the proposed distinction in the new Directive between linear and non-linear material is both unclear and unsustainable. There is particular concern about a broadcast programme which provides an interactive option. A further worry is how the new proposals relate to the existing provisions of the E-Commerce Directive.

The latest draft of the new Directive - which many of us have seen - is now the subject of what is called inter-service consultation which means that the different parts of the Commission with an interest are invited to comment internally on the draft. The proposals are due to go to the College of Commissioners next Tuesday 13 December. So it is just possible that Commissioner Viviane Reding will fulfil her intention to publish the draft Directive before the end of the year but few will be surprised if this slips into the New Year. By that point, thew UK will have passed the EU Presidency to Austria which seems keen to progress the subject.