Italy’s Telecommunications Authority has now drafted national satellite television regulations that should end years of legislative uncertainty. It will also regularise the status of the country’s two pay-TV operators, Telepiù and Stream.

Policy governing Italian satellite TV was formally green-lighted on February 1 after a meeting of interested parties. They include representatives from Telepiù, which is majority owned by France’s Canal Plus; Stream, in which Telecom Italia and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Europe hold a majority stake; and local organisation ACT which groups thematic satellite TV channels. They will have to make their observations known in one week, after which the regulations will be formally approved.

Italian satellite TV regulations will include programming quotas for European product and limits on advertising. The new rules will also provide Telepiù and Stream with broadcasting licences for six years (which can be renewed) replacing current temporary permits. Broadcast licences will be awarded to companies based in Italy and in the EU, but also those from extra-EU countries, provided they practise reciprocity. Foreign TV channels based in an EU member country or which form part of the Strasbourg Convention will not automatically receive authorisation. It will be awarded, however, to national broadcasters which air programming which can be received in other European countries as well as those, both Italian and foreign, who own satellite uplink equipment, which is de-ployed in Italy.

The licensing Council will issue permits two months from the date of the submittal to broadcasters that meet the requirements. All those re-broadcasting terrestrial TV channels via satellite (among them RAI, Mediaset, TMC, Telemarket and Telepace) have been put on the same footing with owners of national TV channels, and will have to respect anti-trust measures and programme quotas. Satellite TV channels will have to devote 15 minutes a week to promoting European audio-visual products.