If you're tired of hearing about net neutrality in the US as a key regulatory issue why not take a break and see how the EC is trying to wrestle media regulations to the ground. ZDNet UK covers the Television Without Frontiers (TVWF) Directive, the legislative package that's trying to provide controls such as uniform standards for advertising and protection of minors in broadcast television. All well and good, but now in recognition of the fast proliferation of video content onto the Web they want to extend the regulations to cover online TV content as well - including new forms of video generated solely online (if that's TV at all - they don't seem to know quite yet whether that's the case). Not surprisingly major EU broadcasters think that this is a great idea, with the notable exception of the UK. The standards are meant in part to help stem the European audiovisual industry's EUR 6 to 7 billion annual deficit with US markets.

While the basic provisions of this directive are fairly innocuous, as a whole it seems to be missing the real opportunities for European media companies. In a world where distribution can be instantaneous and global interest in content can arise at the drop of a hat to benefit any outlet, it would seem that the real opportunity for European publishers and producers is to create a legislative framework that will allow EC countries to jump ahead of the US in becoming net-adept content distributors and to abandon the traditional distribution hegemonies as quickly as possible. It's kind of odd that on the one hand French legislators are all for neutrality and openness in distribution media for music content on iPods but the EC cannot quite come to the same conclusion when it comes to protecting European interests invested in proprietary distribution.

At a time when the US Congress is tied up with trying to shackle its media interests to outdated notions of distribution it would seem to be a wonderful opportunity to think about global markets more broadly and to consider how a net-centric approach to video can benefit European intellectual property more efficiently than US interests. Bravo to the EC on providing a framework that will bring localized broadcast interests into a common European framework. Now it's on to addressing the real opportunities at hand to create export revenues via the World Wide Web.