Much has changed since the last time the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), the EU’s legal framework that coordinates national legislation for audiovisual services, was revised back in 2018. With video content now accessed through a range of different entry points, public service media (PSM) content sits alongside all types of video, all competing for prominence in viewing moments increasingly determined by algorithm.
But with the AVMSD being reviewed again this year, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has called on the European Commission to use the revision to safeguard the prominence of PSM “in a digital landscape dominated by global tech giants.” In a speech in Brussels, Noel Curran, Director General of the EBU, argued that public broadcasters’ journalistic and local mandates make them “a strategic necessity for democracy and social cohesion.”
But this public service has come “under serious threat”, according to Curran, as the content people in Europe consume is increasingly shaped by commercial deals, the devices and platforms they use, and the algorithms that control the content they see. “All of these are controlled by companies whose primary obligation is to their shareholders, not to European citizens,” said Curran. “We are, in effect, at the mercy of global tech, manufacturing and automotive companies whose business interests have nothing to do with the democratic value of the content they are gatekeeping.”
Curran outlined the role tech companies play as interfaces to media content, “dominant advertising intermediaries”, and the engines of a misinformation crisis both inside and outside Europe. “The companies behind those interfaces have become an integral part of the European media environment,” he said. “But they are not media companies. Their interests do not align with the goals behind general interest content.”
Prime position
The EBU chief said this has caused “a structural risk to plurality”, and called on the European Commission to strengthen the prominence provisions in the AVMSD. He said PSM apps should be “among the most visible on the first screen, reachable in a single click, and there by right, not only available to those who pay the platform for prime position, as the big commercial services do today.”
He added that these revisions should be binding, enforceable obligations “with real teeth and meaningful consequences for those who do not comply”, while also being flexible enough to keep pace with technological change, particularly amid the ongoing rise of AI.
“Publishers expect search traffic to almost halve over the next three years, as AI overviews and zero-click searches replace traditional link-clicking,” said Curran. “The way people navigate to trusted media is changing fast. If we do not build prominence obligations that cover these new interfaces now, we will find ourselves, in a very short time, with legislation that is already out of date.”
Moves in the UK
The EBU’s stance mirrors efforts in the UK to protect public service broadcasters (PSB) within increasingly crowded CTV interfaces. The UK’s Media Act, passed in 2024, requires that CTV platforms operating in the UK make PSB services and content available and prominent within their own platforms.
In January, UK media regulator Ofcom released a code of practice to help CTV platforms follow the regulation. The rules included having PSB apps appear within the first nine tiles presented within app menus, making public service content the most prominent search result (where relevant), and ensuring PSBs’ live channels take the top spots in channel guides.
And beyond CTV environments, the watchdog is looking to give UK audiences greater control over their online experiences in an increasingly complex digital and information environment. This week the regulator published a new set of recommendations aimed at improving media literacy across the UK, calling on online platforms, broadcasters and streaming services to help users understand the content they encounter. Ofcom said services should be designed to provide users with “meaningful choice” in how they engage with content, by adopting inclusive design principles and offering greater transparency around content recommendation systems and algorithms.
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