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TV10ROMANIAN ASSOCIATION FOR AUDIOVISUAL COMMUNICATIONS

The Romanian Association for Audiovisual Communications (Asociatia Română de Comunicaţii Audiovizuale – ARCA) joins the main radio and television broadcasters operating in Romania under a license issued by the National Council of the Audiovisual (NCA).

ARCA works for developing an auspicious climate for audiovisual media business in Romania, by representing the interests of the Romanian broadcasters in the relationship with the authorities, the political environment and the civil society.

At the moment ARCA joins 63 broadcasters, with a total of 228 stations (60 TV stations and 168 radio stations), some of them with national coverage.

In 1998, ARCA launched a public debate, involving the Parliament, the National Council for Audiovisual and the press, on the national resources of audiovisual communications, specifically on the electromagnetic spectrum and its administration. Asking for transparency in the administration of this resource, ARCA managed to bring forth the “ Geneva and Stockholm Plans” in the public attention. Due to ARCA, those plans were considered by the authorities administering the audiovisual as a main resource for the development of the domain.

ARCA help to set up the perspectives of development for private broadcasters, based on a full implementation in Romania of the Geneva and Stockholm Plans, which can provide the necessary range of high power frequencies. ARCA succeeded to persuade the Parliament, NACI and NCA about the necessity of attributing a part of those high power frequencies to private broadcasters.

Together with NCA and the Communications regulatory authority (NRAC), ARCA run a program dedicated to monitoring the frequencies available and to evaluating the actual degree of coverage of the frequencies already in use, in order to motivate the necessity of raising the existing transmitting powers; at the end of a period of analysis, monitoring and negotiations, NRAC and NAC has agreed with the ARCA’s proposal to raise the actual level of powers for the existing Radio and TV frequencies. So far more than 160 radio and TV stations are part of the program.

ARCA has submitted to the Parliament a project to modernize the Law 48/1992 on audiovisual and had a successful lobby for the acceptance of most of its proposals by the legislative forum in the new audiovisual law 504/2002.

ARCA participated in several occasions in the drafting of amendments of the copyright law and the cinema law, as well as in the negotiations with collecting societies in setting up procedures on applying of the copyright legislation.

ARCA takes part as an advisory body of NCA in dealing with issues related to audiovisual policy and to the drafting of specific secondary legislation. ARCA organized several seminars involving broadcasters and authorities.

ARCA also set up self-regulations and co-regulation codes, closely cooperating with the NCA.

The association was represented at the public consultations on the review of the television without frontiers Directive organized starting with 2003 by the European Commission. Also ARCA submitted to the Commission its written contributions in that respect (the only contributions coming from broadcasters associations originated in Eastern Europe). ARCA was represented in the focus groups set up by The European Commission within the process of the review of the TV directive and participated also at the audiovisual Conference in Liverpool which concluded the consultation process and to other following conferences devoted to the new draft of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

ARCA was also represented in various international seminars and conferences.

ARCA was involved in the working group set up by NAC in order to develop a draft proposal for regulations concerning the digital broadcast – DVBT, DVBH, HDTV, DAB.

In 2008 ARCA was involved, together with The National Audiovisual Council and the Ministry of Culture and Cultes, in the drafting of the draft law meant to transpose the Audiovisual media service directive in the Romanian audiovisual law. The draft was submited to a public debate by the Ministry of Culture and Cultes during May 2008

ARCA has the quality of member of the National Association of Broadcasters’ Association Exchange Membership Club (set up by NAB-USA). In 2004 ARCA became member of AER (Association Europeenne des Radios)

CONTACT DATA:

ASOCIATIA ROMANA DE COMUNICATII AUDIOVIZUALE 
Intrarea VICTOR EFTIMIU, nr. 5-7, et.9, ap. 58
sector 1, BUCURESTI, ROMANIA
e-mail: arca@audiovizual.ro ;www.audiovizual.ro

BOARD of ARCA:

Florian Turcilă ( distribution director PRO TV) President

Florin Ciobica (president-general director Radio KISS FM) Vice-president

Galina Dobrescu (Head of the Copyright and Related Rights Service – Romanian Broadcasting Company)

Sabina Petre (member of the board ANTENAGROUP)

Catalin Baleanu (business & legal affairs director –  KanalD)

Nicoleta Popa (administrator  National FM)

Ioan Mazilescu ( director – Prima TV)

Roxana Niculescu (director – România TV)

Rares Anitza (director – B1TV)

George Chirita – executive director – ARCA