On 17 May 2016 members of Parliament approved the law “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Television and Radio Broadcasting” (concerning the definition of the transmission of European productions)” (Law № 2766, by Viktoria Syumar, Dmytro Stetsenko, Oleksandr Opanasenko, Serhiy Vysotskiy).
The draft law proposes changes to Article 28 of the law “OnTelevision and Radio Broadcasting”, which concerns the volume of Ukrainian and foreign transmission in broadcasting. In particular, for licensed television and radio companies the transmission of European productions, and also American and Canadian productions, should make up at least 70% of total weekly broadcasting between the hours of 07:00 and 23:00. Out of these, at least 50% of total weekly broadcasting must be transmission of Ukrainian productions.
The law earlier set a quota (at least 80%) for European-produced programs. However, the criteria for classifying transmissions were unclear, and therefore the rules were not enforced.
The new law considers European productions to be those that have been created by one or more legal entities and residents of states that have ratified The European Convention on Transfrontier Television. It was this convention, which Ukraine has joined, that set the requirement for reserving a majority of transmission time for European works.
Transmissions of European productions also include those that have been created upon request of legal entities and residents of states that have ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television, provided that these transmissions are directly created by those who are also individual residents of these states. However, transmissions will not be considered European or Ukrainian productions if created on the request of or on the part of one or more legal entities or residents of a state recognized as an aggressor state and/or occupier state by the Verkhovna Rada.
The law will come into force the day after the proclamation.
Text of the draft law in Ukrainian can be found at