Cyprus not showing enough EU television programmes

ALTHOUGH Cypriots are among the top TV watchers in the EU, Brussels says not enough European television programmes are being shown on the island.

The European Commission called on Cyprus, Slovenia and Sweden to show more content from European sources,

The EU’s Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive, which entered into force in 2007, requires member states to make sure that over 50 per cent of programming time is devoted to European works.

The idea is to enrich and promote Europe’s creative industries. Denmark came top of the survey with   84.8 per cent of its content coming from EU sources, followed by Poland with 83.1 per cent and the Netherlands 80.3 per cent. Britain just about made it with 50.7 per cent.

The survey said it appeared that American programming was “on the decline” in Europe,

According to the figures for 2007 and 2008, Cyprus only shows 30 per cent European content, while on average European television broadcasters devote an average of 63 per cent of their air time to programmes made in the EU and 35 per cent to independent  works created by European producers.

However state television CyBC Director General Themis Themistocleous questioned the figures yesterday.

“If we add up Greek productions and Cypriot ones, because Cypriot programmes can be considered as EU produced, we should be at 90 per cent,” Themistocleous said. “The legal threshold that we’re meant to adhere to is actually less than that, so we are well above,” he added.

He was also quite reticent in putting much faith in a poll that was conducted two years ago.

Member states are due to report on the promotion of European works by the end of 2011, in time for the Commission’s next report, set for publication in 2012.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.