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Is There a Role for Economic Analysis When Deciding on State Aid to Public Broadcasters? journal article

Caroline Buts, Mychal Langenus, Karen Donders

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 16 (2017), Issue 4, Page 537 - 558

By means of text analysis, this article examines the use of economic concepts and tools in State aid decisions regarding public broadcasters. We find that broad and general concepts are most frequently used and that more specific economic terms that can be found in the Broadcasting Communication surface rather seldomly in the public version of decision texts. Furthermore, we do not observe a substantial difference between the use of these terms before and after the adoption of the v2009 Broadcasting Communication suggesting that economic concepts are not more frequently used in recent years. We believe that economic analysis could bring additional clarity and support in several of the studied decisions, especially in cases where, for example, it is quite debatable which tasks fall under a public service obligation and which do not. Economic analysis would foster the evolution to a stricter and more rational State aid control in this exceptional sector preventing potential spillover-effects of aid into new activities. Keywords: State Aid; Media; Public Service Broadcasting; Economic Analysis.


State Aid to Public Service Media journal article

European Commission Decisional Practice Before and After the 2009 Broadcasting Communication

Karen Donders

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 14 (2015), Issue 1, Page 68 - 87

State aid cases concerning the funding of public broadcasters in EU Member States have ever since the early 1990s provoked both political and academic attention. Based on three principles – (1) a well-defined public task, (2) the formal entrustment and independent control thereof and (3) proportionality of State aid – the European Commission has reached several decisions affecting the funding schemes of public broadcasters. These principles have been made explicit in the so-called 2001 Broadcasting Communication and were, in light of the rapidly evolving media sector, refined in 2009. This article analyses how decisional practice has affected the national regulation of public service media and whether decisional practice before and after 2009 is different. The findings indicate that the European Commission’s control has forced Member States to introduce basic principles of good governance into their aid schemes for public service broadcasting. However, the Commission seems to move towards a kind of ‘micro-management’ of public service media, in particular regarding new online and mobile services of public broadcasters. While this is explained by increased pressure from the commercial sector to limit public broadcasters’ presence online, recent decisions could raise questions on how far the European Commission can go to ensure fair competition without jeopardising Member States’ near-autonomous competence to define the public service remit of services of general economic interest, including public media services. Moreover, the effectiveness of very detailed appropriate measures relating to, for example, the amount of days Video-On-Demand services can be offered online, can be questioned as well. Keywords: Broadcasting, Commission Decisions, Public Service Media, SGEI.

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