TV without frontiers, lawmakers in tears

"We are completely negative about it," says Shaun Woodward MP, Minister for Creative Industries and Tourism. "The more we look at it; it seems a really bad idea. The fundamental flaw is that it probably won't work. I see it doing huge damage to our growth," he adds. "The problem is the absolute lack of clarity."

Woodward says that the exact scope of the legislation the European Commission is proposing is "unclear", as it could cover a range of Internet services and mobile content providers. Regulations for linear services such as traditional broadcasting, may not be extendable to non-linear services, such as content available on the Internet.

"We have serious concerns over the inclusion of non-linear services [such as video-on-demand] in the Directive. This is neither desirable nor practical, as there is nothing to stop companies relocating outside the EU to bypass regulations. Companies may relocate, taking jobs and services elsewhere, while the content is still consumed here," says Woodward. "This is a good example of where the EU goes wrong. Viviane Reding has got it wrong.”

Telcos are also concerned about the scope of the directive as they increasingly move towards becoming content distributors, by starting to offer services, such as BT Fusion, which combines IPTV streaming with telephony and Freeview, as well as mobile Internet access.

Neil Gibbs, European regulation manager for BT is worried that the "reach of the Commission proposal will spread to have a variety of unintended consequences, including banning the editorial independence of programme makers".

Apprehension over the remit of the new regulations is not just limited to UK providers. Andrea Grillo, European regulatory manager for Telecom Italia claims it would be "helpful to have a more specific definition of linear and non-linear services", and that the telco was in favour of light regulation that "does not hamper the distribution of new content forms."

Europe’s Internet service providers are more vociferous critics, seeing the directive as regulation of the Internet by stealth. The European Internet Service Providers Association (EuroISPA) wants self regulation of the Internet, arguing that "regulated self regulation" — where players are left to regulate themselves until something goes wrong — will be abused as some players will have a vested interest in not reporting abuse of the regulations to the authorities.

"[The Directive] is regulation of the Internet through the back door," says Professor Michael Rotert, president of EuroISPA. "We think Commissioner Reding has not understood the concept of the Internet. It might be she thinks she's regulating content, but you can't distinguish things so easily. Regulated self-regulation will be misused immediately, when it comes into practice."
 
ISPs also argue that the eCommerce Directive and other existing legislation already protects children and consumers. For its part, AOL argues that child-abuse images are already illegal, and consumers are protected by regulatory bodies.

"We believe strongly in self regulation as the way forward," says Camille de Stempel, director of policy, AOL UK. "We don't see the need for the directive — we have a lot of tools to protect children, it's in our interest to... If anything we should look at the relaxation of broadcasting regulations rather than trying to shoehorn the Internet into a new regulatory framework."