Audience measurement
1. Providers of audience measurement systems shall ensure that their audience measurement systems and the methodology used by their audience measurement systems comply with the principles of transparency, impartiality, inclusiveness, proportionality, non-discrimination, comparability and verifiability.
2. Without prejudice to the protection of undertakings’ trade secrets as defined in Article 2, point (1), of Directive (EU) 2016/943, providers of proprietary audience measurement systems shall provide, without undue delay and free of charge, to media service providers, to advertisers and to third parties authorised by media service providers and advertisers accurate, detailed, comprehensive, intelligible and up-to-date information on the methodology used by their audience measurement systems.
Providers of proprietary audience measurement systems shall ensure that the methodology used by their audience measurement systems and the way in which it is applied is independently audited once a year. At the request of a media service provider, a provider of a proprietary audience measurement system shall provide it with information on audience measurement results, including non-aggregated data, which relate to the media content and media services of that media service provider.
This paragraph shall not affect the Union’s data protection and privacy rules.
3. National regulatory authorities or bodies shall encourage providers of audience measurement systems to draw up, together with media service providers, providers of online platforms, their representative organisations and any other interested parties, codes of conduct or shall encourage providers of audience measurement systems to comply with codes of conduct jointly agreed and widely accepted by media service providers, their representative organisations and any other interested parties.
Codes of conduct as referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph shall be intended to promote the regular, independent and transparent monitoring of the effective achievement of their objectives and compliance with the principles referred to in paragraph 1, including through independent and transparent audits.
4. The Commission, assisted by the Board, may issue guidelines on the practical application of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3, taking into account, where appropriate, codes of conduct as referred to in paragraph 3.
5. The Board shall foster the exchange of best practices related to the deployment of audience measurement systems through a regular dialogue between representatives of the national regulatory authorities or bodies, representatives of providers of audience measurement systems, representatives of media service providers, representatives of providers of online platforms and other interested parties.
Allocation of public funds for state advertising and supply or service contracts
1. Public funds or any other consideration or advantage made available, directly or indirectly, by public authorities or entities to media service providers or providers of online platforms for state advertising or supply or service contracts concluded with media service providers or providers of online platforms shall be awarded in accordance with transparent, objective, proportionate and non-discriminatory criteria, made publicly available in advance by electronic and user-friendly means, and by means of open, proportionate and non-discriminatory procedures.
Member States shall seek to ensure that the overall yearly public expenditure allocated for state advertising is distributed to a wide plurality of media service providers represented on the market, taking into account the national and local specificities of the media markets concerned.
This Article shall not affect the awarding of public contracts and concession contracts under Union public procurement rules or the application of Union State aid rules.
2. Public authorities or entities shall make publicly available by electronic and user-friendly means information on an annual basis about their public expenditure for state advertising. That information shall include at least the following:
(a)
the legal names of the media service providers or the providers of online platforms from which services were purchased;
(b)
where applicable, the legal names of the business groups of which any media service providers or providers of online platforms as referred to in point (a) are part; and
(c)
the total annual amount spent and the annual amounts spent per media service provider or provider of an online platform.
Member States may exempt subnational governments of territorial entities of less than 100 000 inhabitants, and entities controlled, directly or indirectly, by such subnational governments, from the obligation under point (b) of the first subparagraph.
3. National regulatory authorities or bodies or other competent independent authorities or bodies in the Member States shall monitor and report annually on the allocation of state advertising expenditure to media service providers and to providers of online platforms based on the information listed in paragraph 2. Those annual reports shall be made publicly available in an easily accessible manner.
In order to assess the completeness of the information on state advertising made available pursuant to paragraph 2, national regulatory authorities or bodies or other competent independent authorities or bodies in the Member States may request from the public authorities or entities referred to in the first subparagraph of paragraph 2 further information, including more detailed information on the application of the criteria and procedures referred to in paragraph 1.
Where the monitoring, assessment and reporting are carried out by other competent independent authorities or bodies in the Member States, they shall keep the national regulatory authorities or bodies duly informed.
