BROADCASTING: 'PAY-PER-VIEW' SERVICE SUBJECT TO TWF DIRECTIVE REQUIREMENTS.

• Position: Brief Article

The EU Court of Justice delivered judgement on June 2 in response to a request for a preliminary ruling from the Netherlands on case C-89/04 concerning the Dutch company Mediakabel. The company offers several services, among which is one that allows viewers to watch one or more of a series of 60 films per month at specified times. Mediakabel maintains that this is an interactive service supplied at individual request falling within the category of information society services and thus outside the scope of the television Directive. But the Court ruled that a "pay-per-view" service which consists of transmitting television programmes intended for reception by the public and which is not supplied on individual demand is a television broadcasting service, and thus subject to the requirements of the EU Directive governing television broadcasting (Directive 89/552/EEC as amended by Directive 97/36/EC), in particular the obligation to reserve...