ABSTRACT
Advocates of a greater role for the EU in the regulation of analogue broadcasting had to overcome some substantial obstacles. The diverse nature and strong political and cultural roots of national broadcasting systems described in Chapter 2 represented the first major challenge. But the lack of any EU responsibility for this area was equally serious. Broadcasting was not even mentioned in the Treaty of Rome and the European Comunity acquired no cultural competence until the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993.1 Community policy for the audio-visual sector only became possible after a series of judgements from the European Court of Justice(ECJ) in 1974 and 1980 defined broadcasting as a ‘tradeable service’ subject to the internal market provisions of the Treaty.2 But the significance of broadcasting goes far beyond its impact on the internal market, and European intervention in broadcasting has usually been inspired by-if not always justified in terms of-those wider cultural, political and economic considerations.
