The legal status of personalized radio in Europe, as exemplified by the NETRADIO project in Poland

Resumo

This presentation is focused on introducing the concept behind the NETRADIO project, developed by regional broadcasting stations of the Polish Radio Company, Poznan Centre Computer Super-Net and The Press Systems and Media Law Department of the Political Science and Journalism Institute, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland. The basic idea behind this project is the introduction of an automatic system of individual creation of a broadcasting programme in real-time, corresponding with expectations of listeners who thereby create the programmes themselves, and according to the manner of transmission of a given programme. This project will enable everyone to take advantage of the rich stock of archives situated in regional Polish radio broadcasting stations and top-class content of news and political commentary journalism, continuously produced by radio stations. In this way, NETRADIO is a practical realisation of the concept of radio on-demand.
Moreover, it will probably become an important alternative for traditional
broadcasting.
The system functions in the following manner. From the base of archival recordings (news, political commentary journalism and recorded music are
divided into thematic categories) - the content goes to a database, which
generate for instance a programme “x”, through a system of electronic controllers defined by listeners. Each broadcast programme is addressed for one radio set (one terminal computer, a mobile phone in UMTS standard, one radio set in a car – also acting as a UMTS terminal). The use of this technology by a single listener or client, does not exclude many formatted thematic radio programs for the listeners at large, according to the music profile created (e.g. jazz radio, radio for business).
Against this background, a comparative analysis will be presented, concerning regulations by law defining the legal status of radio on-demand in the European Union, particularly in the context of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. For example, the Broadcasting Act of 29 December, 1992 in Poland excludes audio services offered by radio on-demand as out of its scope. The question then arises, which judicial norms actually define the legal status of radio on-demand? It may be worth asking if this new form of radio transmission is to be interpreted as just services sent by electronic route or still as classic broadcasting.