European production and broadcast quotas to be reviewed

Work has started on a review of the impact of the quotas that require television channels throughout Europe to fill more than half their schedules with European productions.
This policy was designed to encourage the circulation of European-made film and television programmes within the European Union.
The investigation will also cover quotas for independent production, which state that 10% of content must come from independent producers.
David Graham & Associates (DGA) has been awarded a contract by the Education and Culture Directorate of the European Commission to review the impact of the Television Without Frontiers Directive on European audiovisual content production. The study will support an evaluation by the Commission of the effectiveness of the production quotas in the Directive.
This work will be provided through Optima, a joint venture consultancy uniting the skills of DGA and Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates. Carat Expert (France) and Arena Audiovisual (Spain) are also assisting DGA in the project.
The project team will analyse audiovisual output and conduct interviews with key industry players in eighteen European markets to assess the impact of the quotas. David Graham, CEO of DGA, said: “It is a large project with a demanding brief. The rules are currently interpreted in a different ways in different countries. We have been asked to use a harmonised system of measurement to compare the relative impact they have had on each market. With our partners we will be studying sample output from all the countries in the study in the spring and summer of 2004”.
(GB)