RTUK Annual Progress Report 2012-2013: Landscape of Radio and Television Media in Turkey

1. IBRAF 3th Annual Meeting Marrakech-Morocco 19-20 December 2013 Hüseyin DEMİRBİLEK RTUK- International Relations Department IBRAF Expert RTUK Annual Progress Report 2012-2013

2. Landscape Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) National Legislation Main Novelties introduced by the New Law Work Done Following the New Law Ongoing Studies and projects SKAAS Project Digitalisation RTUK in International Relations RTUK Annual Progress Report 2012-2013Content 2

3. Landscape ●Television (T) : 25 national, 15 regional, 207 local ●Radio: 38 national, 98 regional, 922 local ● Satellite: 284 TV, 59 radio channels ● Cable: 90 TV channels, 4 radio channels ● Digital: 3 digital platforms and 1 IPTV platform Together with cable and satellite there are approximately 625 TV broadcasters in Turkey. There are 3 digital platforms (Digiturk, Teledunya, D-Smart) and 1 IPTV (Tivibu) operating in Turkey. They give numerous channel packages, movie channels, pay-per-view channels, interactive services.

4. Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) The Radio and Television Supreme Council founded in 1994 is an administratively and financially autonomous and impartial public legal person for the regulation and supervision of radio, television and on demand media services sector. The main functions of the Supreme Councilare: To take essential precautions, in the field of media services, for securing freedom of expression and information, diversity of opinion, media pluralism and competition environmentfor avoiding media concentration; and for protecting public interests. 4

5. Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) In order to achieve its primary objectives, Supreme Council; monitors and supervises the broadcasts of media service providers, makes and deploys the television channel and radio frequency plannings in the framework of frequency bands for the terrestrial radio and television broadcasts determines the required administrative, financial and technical standards for a broadcast license; grants broadcast licenses to those of such companies which fulfill the required qualifications; supervises them and revokes the broadcast licenses when required perfoms other functions and use its powers determined by the Broadcasting Law No:6112 5

6. Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) Members; The Supreme Council is composed of 9 members elected by the Turkish Parliament. The members of the Supreme Council is elected in the General Session of the Turkish Parliament from among these nominees on the basis of the number of deputies of each political party. 6

7. Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) Members; The term of the Supreme Council members is six years. The Supreme Council members elect a President and a Deputy President from among its members by holding a meeting. The term of office of the President and Deputy President is two years. 7

8. Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) Revenues of the Supreme Council are; Broadcast licence fees from media service providers; Annual usage fees for television channel, multiplex capacity and radio frequency to be collected from public and private media service providers broadcasting through terrestrial network; A three percent share of monthly gross commercial communication revenues ofmedia service providers excluding their sponsorship revenues. When needed, treasury aid to be obtained from the budget of the Presidency of the Turkish Parliament. Other Revenues, 8

9. Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) 9

10. National Legislation New broadcasting law No 6112 on the Establishment of Radio and Television and Audio Visual Media Services was adopted by the parliament on 15 February 2011 entered into force after its publication in the Official Gazette No 27863 dated 3 March 2011. Draft law was prepared by RTUK within extensive consultation with stakeholders namely, broadcasting sector, public institutions, NGOs. New Law No 6112 brings broad changes to its predecessor Law No 3984. It principally aims the compliance to EU AVMS Directive and addresses various sectoral issues including technological developments. 10

11. Lays down regulatory basis for transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting after frequency planning and its allocation. Lays down regulatory basis to new broadcasting technologies such as IPTV, DVB-H, HDTV etc. Definitions of the former law are renewed and/or extended according to AVMS Directive, such as: media service provider, on-demand media services, product placement, commercial communication etc. Media ownership rules are revised and liberalised. Removes the dual regime by incorporating public service broadcaster to the same provisions and supervision as commercial broadcasters. Main Novelties of The New Law No:6112 11

12. Following the new Broadcasting Law, studies for secondary legislation have gained momentum.Up to now 14by-laws prepared following the extensive consultation with the stakeholders, have been put into force after their publication in the official gazette. Some of them are as follows: Radio and Television Supreme Council Cable Broadcast Regulation. Radio and Television Supreme Council Satellite Broadcast Regulation. Regulation on Administrative and Financial provisions to be complied by Media Service Providers, Platform and Infrastructure Operators. Many other By-Laws such as the ones on employment of the experts in the Supreme Council; the rights and duties of the heads of units; Commercial Communications Revenues etc. Work Done Following The Law 12

13. Ongoing Studies Smart Signs Informative system for the protection of children from harmful content. Study visits by the experts from our counterparts such as Macedonia, Kosovo, Ukraine, TurkishRepublic of Northern Cyprus, Azerbaijan. Regularinformativemontlymeetings on sectoralissues. Other routine and complementary studies, public surveys, monthly assessment of complaints etc. SKAAS (Digital Recording, Archiving and Analyzing System) 13

14. SKAAS “Private media service providers are obliged to retain the recordings of each broadcast for one year.” Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council has designed a “SKAAS” (Digital Recording, Archiving and Analyzing System) Project was implemented as a National Project with The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and RTUK. RTUK stores TV and radio channel broadcasts on satellite, cable, terrestrial and internet medium, and analyses sound and video files more quickly and effectively by SKAAS. SKAAS archives over 100 national TV channels and 100 radio channels digitally. 14

15. SKAAS 15

16. SKAAS All radio and television broadcasts can be monitored and watched via computer by authorized experts By the help of an interface developed within the Project, at weekly Council meetings, Supreme Council members can follow and evaluate the experts reports on their agenda, watch the video clips attached to reports and give decisions about broadcasts By SKAAS project, RTUK staff can easily reach information which provides an effective coordination between them. This leads to the shortening and the effectiveness of the decision making process. 16

17. SKAAS 17

18. DigitalisationProcess RTUK started to work on terresterial digital frequency planning in 2000 and launched its pilot project to test digital broadcasting in major cities but it was interrupted for various reasons including the verdicts of the supreme court on Anten A.Ş. in 2009 and several times since then, until the new Broadcasting Law came into force on 3 March 2011. In accordance with the new law, the process restarted and the frequency planning has been completed. The tender for frequency allocation has been carried out in March 2013. However the switch over process is expected to be completed in the following two years. 18

19. DigitalisationProcess The standards have been determined: DVB-T2 (Digital Video Broadcasting -Terresterial) and MPEG-4(Moving Picture Experts Group) Anten A.Ş has been established in 2012by the TRT (National Public Broadcaster) and national private broadcasters to build Transmitter Tower to all cities. Products using other standards will not be available at the domestic market to avoid the confusion and protect the consumers. Set top box /decoders will be supplied by subsidy programs or via a promotion campaign of daily newspapers etc. 19

20. RTUK in International Relations Rtuk joins in Council of Europe Experts Meetings, European Union Regulatory Authorities Working Groups and actively takes part in international organizations such as EPRA, BRAF, MNRA RTUK arranges bilateral protocols and expert visit under these protocols. 20

21. RTUK Annual Progress Report 2012-2013 THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION Hüseyin DEMIRBILEK RTUK- International Relations Department IBRAF Expert Marrakech-Morocco 19-20 December 2013 21