Prospects for much-needed partnership between the 15 old European Union (EU) member states and the 10 new member states in the area of media policy and regulation may be hampered by potential conflicts between national interests and EU regulations; preoccupation in the new member states with domestic issues of media policy and politics; and differences of media policy goals between new countries and other EU members; and indeed different understandings and definitions of the media in EU policy (treated mostly as "money-making machines") and the new members (in which the media are mostly perceived as "meaning-making machines"). If integration is to be successful and partnership is to be effective, both sides need to change. The new members can go through the motions of involvement in the EU audiovisual policy, or they can introduce new ideas and join forcefully and without inhibitions in the already ongoing debate about what sort of an organization it should be. For that, they need an EU with a heart, a social conscience, and courage-the courage of its convictions and principles.

This article is intended to give a general overview of the audiovisual policy and audiovisual market of the European Union (EU) linked to the issue of the Eastern enlargement of the EU. EU audiovisual policy is the arena for divergent interests and arguments, both economic and cultural, European and national. Accession negotiations in the sphere of cultural and audiovisual policy largely came down on legislative alignment with the acquis, in particular with the Television Without Frontiers Directive (Council of the European Communities, 1989; European Parliament and Council of the European Union, 1997) as the single important piece of audiovisual legislation. Alignment has been achieved by a "second wave" of media laws (1998 to 2002) in Central and Eastern European countries following the "first wave" of media laws in the first half of the 1990s. Conflicts do arise mainly as a result of the conflict between national and European interests (culture, identity) on the one hand and the power struggle between the EU and the combined forces of the United States and the World Trade Organization on the other hand.

This article outlines the development of the audiovisual scene of the Slovak Republic from the fall of communism, the break up of Czechoslovakia, to the preparation for membership of the European Union. The particular focus is on the development of public service broadcasting and media independence, outlining the political obstacles in the early years of the Slovak Republic, and the later context of accession to the European Union.

In the lead up to European Union accession in 2007, this newly developed Romanian media system has to be integrated into and survive within the European mass media system. It will have to accept certain rules and to renounce certain lucrative "local" practices. The media system will need to coexist and compete with more established and often financially stronger or more highly respected media partners. A new value system has to be integrated into the media system (altered either by their being associated with the communist inheritance or by the commercialist discourse), including public responsibility, cultural and education remits, and the system of state aid for the public interest media. In this context, this process of taking on board European regulation related to the mass media may appear, for many actors of the postcommunist press, as representing a loss of many of the elements of freedom gained since the fall of communism and the associated rules regarding the functioning of mass media.

Because the European Union's (EU) Television Without Frontiers Directive (TWF; 1989) refers only to the notion of European production, broadcasters, especially in small countries with small audiovisual markets and restricted language areas, become aware that the mechanism of protection of national broadcasting space is closely related to the understanding and definition of the notions of national and own production and respective broadcasting practices. This article reveals and discusses some outcomes of a questionnaire-based survey made in Fall 2003 for European Platform of Regulatory Authorities (Shein & Rajaleid, 2003) concerning the problems of implementation of EU media policy standards and TWF Directive requirements into broadcasting practices in new EU member states, candidate, and transition countries. In cultural terms the states in question although abiding the common rules seemed to be concerned that the strive for Europeanization of TV programming tends to some extent to weaken their broadcasting sector's ability and options to protect countries' national remits, their language, and cultural identity. Respondents pointed out that European cultural concerns should be more flexibly justified with options for national broadcasting sectors to build on their cultural concerns. It leads us to the problem of coherence of the positions in construction of European and national TV-broadcasting space and consistency of so called big and small pictures of common cultural needs. This article examines 3 main approaches to the notion of national production-the producer-based, cultural or language-based, and content-based approach from the viewpoints of definition, implementation, and influence on national programming structures. Controversies of the management and operational implications of these positions and their influence on maintaining and strengthening of cultural commons in broadcasting performance will be also mirrored in this regard.

This article analyzed how the profile of the teams and quality of the matches influence the rating figures during the broadcasting of live soccer matches. It confirmed that national teams (Rosenborg in this case) are especially popular, but also that other teams can be extremely popular (Manchester United and Liverpool in this case)-independent of the viewers geographical origin. When such teams are eliminated from a tournament-or do not even qualify-this can hit the TV channels financially. The data also revealed that even if soccer matches attract high rating figures, this is no guarantee that the prematch sections will also attract high rating figures. The median viewer of Champions League matches started to watch when the match was about to start, and thus did not take any interest in the prematch commercials. Hence, the optimal solution for profit maximizing channels may be to start the program shortly before the match. If there are few who watch the long prematch and postmatch sections, then the alt...