ACT welcomes European Democracy Shield and calls for actions to support media sustainability

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BRUSSELS, 12 NOVEMBER. The Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe (ACT) welcomes the European Commission’s publication of the European Democracy Shield.

ACT represents Europe’s commercial audiovisual champions – responsible, accountable, and invested in high-quality content for Europeans. They offer a model for how media can contribute to Europe’s culture, democracy, and economy by providing value-added content and a safe environment for viewers of all ages.

The Shield is a timely and essential initiative to protect democratic discourse in an era of unprecedented digital challenges. Any meaningful defense of democracy must prioritise reinforcing media plurality and sustainability of responsible editorial media while curtailing the dominance of very large and gatekeeping online platforms.

Tangibly, to be successful the Democracy Shield needs to deliver measures that have real world impact. Notably, through three critical elements:

• The robust enforcement of existing digital rules that support Europe’s information ecosystem, in particular the proper implementation of the DSA, DMA and EMFA
• The support for an advertising market that genuinely incentivises media investing in quality journalism and cultural content
• The systematic incorporation of media impact assessments into EU regulatory processes to ensure legislative proposals support rather than undermine media sustainability

ACT particularly welcomes the Democracy Shield’s explicit recognition of advertising’s crucial role in funding trusted news and quality content. As the Shield highlights, the focus of the review of Audiovisual Media Services Directive should be on supporting the economic viability of the sector, notably by modernising advertising rules with a view to foster the sustainability of EU media. This should be the focus rather than re-opening cultural obligations. Broadcasters have successfully complied with the existing rules in the past decade, as reported by the Media Outlook. Furthermore, we hope that the Shield can lead to concrete next steps that realign economic incentives in favour of responsible editorial media. The Commission should notably explore ways to incentivize advertising investments in media which fund newsrooms, professional journalism and cultural content.

We also commend the Commission for prioritizing the promotion of an independent and diverse media landscape in its enforcement of the DSA and DMA and in its approach to competition policy. With the shift to digital consumption, new smart devices are becoming the new gatekeepers to content. In our view, this presents an opportunity for the Commission to prevent tech platforms from leveraging their market power and control the provision of audiovisual media services through their operating systems. A more forward-looking approach to outdated market definitions should take into account the public interest benefits delivered by commercial audiovisual media services.

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