The Implementation of the Quota Requirements of the Directive `Television Without Frontiers'

Abstract

/ The television programming and production quotas introduced in 1989 by the European Directive `Television without Frontiers' were intended to improve the European audiovisual industry and to protect European culture. Nearly two decades since the implementation of these regulations, one may ask what effects they have had. This article addresses this question by analysing the challenges entailed in the European quotas for broadcasters from different European countries. The analysis is based on the assumption that television broadcasters are organizations with specific structures. On the one hand, they can react to quotas by relying only on their existing structures (e.g. planning practices or the availability of specific organizational divisions); on the other hand, quotas may affect these structures and change some features of media organizations. These dynamics engender unexpected side-effects that cannot be neglected when evaluating the success of quota requirements.