Ten years on from the first CA Directive, the European Commission is launching an open consultation and is asking all interested parties to submit information and views on services that use conditional-access. The consultation follows an impact assessment study of the Directive on CA Services. The Commission will use the information gathered during the consultation process to draw up its second report on the implementation of the Directive.

Pay-TV has benefited from the EU-wide protection afforded by EC Directive 98/84 on conditional-access services. Now, 10 years after it was adopted, the European Commission wishes to compile a second report on how the Directive is being implemented in what is now a very different economic and technological climate.

The Commission is asking all interested parties to submit their observations, focusing on six main areas: the development of cross-border services, how effectively the Directive is being implemented in the Member States, new services covered by the Directive, how the Directive has contributed to protecting copyright holders, digital rights management (DRM) systems and the use of conditional access for purposes other than to protect pay-services.

The consultation will remain open until 4 April 2008.

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