The BC: Fines and Public Warnings for Breaching the Legislation by Several Audiovisual Media Service Distributors

The Broadcasting Council (BC) fined the Smart Network media services distributor with the total of 14000 lei for failing to comply with the offer of rebroadcast programs and for failing to provide the authority the contracts with the copyright and related rights holders. Besides, the company in question, as well as the Uplink distributor, were publicly warned for not complying with the proportion of the content broadcast and subtitled in Romanian in their grids of rebroadcast TV channels. Three other distributors were publicly warned for failing to comply with the obligation to rebroadcast the “must carry” TV services.

The BC order to monitor the activity of such media service distributors as Smart Network, Uplink, Raznet, Andridan Impex, Excelentercom, Teodad, Jilanste, Interqinet, Sebisat, SVstadard, Revafarcom, and Coscomsat on January 20, 2023. According to the report, the monitoring took place during May and June, based on several provisions of the Code of Audiovisual Media Services (CAMS), including compliance with the offers for rebroadcast audiovisual media services, copyright, and related rights, the proportion of content broadcast and subtitled in Romanian in the rebroadcasting grid, the “must carry” list, as well as protecting the national audiovisual space.

According to the conclusions, none of the audiovisual media service distributors had any registered breaches related to protecting the national audiovisual space. In addition, some of them rebroadcast TV programs complying with the provisions related to copyright and related rights, and another part complies with the requirements on rebroadcasting the “must carry” TV services.

As to the Smart Network company, the share of content broadcast and subtitled in Romanian was not complied with. Besides, six TV services from the approved offer were not broadcast, and 78 audiovisual media services were not listed in the offer were broadcast; for 74 of them, the distributor did not provide any rebroadcasting contracts with the respective copyright holders. As to the Uplink distributor, the BC stated non-compliance with the proportion of broadcast and/or subtitled TV channels in Romanian. Such distributors as Excelentercom SRL, SVstadard SRL, and Coscomsat SRL breached the provisions related to rebroadcasting the “must carry” TV services.

The decisions regarding fines and public warnings for the audiovisual media service distributors were taken unanimously; it should be mentioned that the BC meeting held on June 30 was chaired by Aneta Gonța, Vice-President of the institution.