European broadcasters 'exceed local content quotas'

European television broadcasters are comfortably exceeding local content quotas set down by the Television Without Frontiers directive.
According to a European Commission report, broadcasters devoted an average 62% of airtime to European works in 2000, up from 60.7% in 1999. The minimum quota currently stands at 40%.
Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for culture and audiovisual affairs, said: "This trend reflects increasing public demand for national and European works, especially of fiction. It testifies to the vitality of our cultural diversity and may be connected with the improvement in the fortunes of European cinema."
She also said that, at the end of the year, she would present a report on the application of the Directive as a whole to the Commission, accompanied by a programme of work for 2003 to prepare for a proposal to amend the Directive, when the time came, taking account of economic and technical developments in the sector.
(GB)