The Advanced Television Services Regulations 2003

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Advanced Television Services Regulations 2003 and shall come into force on 25th July 2003.

Revocation and saving

2.—(1) Save as provided in paragraph (2), the Advanced Television Services Regulations 1996(1) and the Advanced Television Services (Amendment) Regulations 1996(2) are hereby revoked.

(2) Regulations 1, 3, 6, 8(1), 9, 14, 15, 16 and 17 of, and Schedule 2 to, the Advanced Television Services Regulations 1996 shall remain in force in respect of television sets (within the meaning of regulation 6 thereof) and consumer equipment (within the meaning of regulation 9 thereof) which (in either case) were put on the market in any member State before 25th July 2003; and references in those Regulations to “the Director” shall be treated as references to the Office of Communications from the time (or from the first time if there is more than one) at which the transitional period provided for in section 408 of the Communications Act 2003(3) ends in respect of a function to be carried on by the Director thereunder.

Interpretation

3.  In these Regulations—

“analogue television set” means a television set which can receive and display analogue television signals;

“conditional access service” means a service which is provided over a conditional access system;

“conditional access system” has the meaning given by section 75(3) of the Communications Act 2003;

“digital television set” means a television set with an integrated decoder of digital television signals;

“electronic communications network” has the meaning given by section 32 of the Communications Act 2003;

“electronic communications service” has the meaning given by section 32 of the Communications Act 2003;

“public electronic communications network” has the meaning given by section 151(1) of the Communications Act 2003;

“rent out” in relation to any television set or other equipment means the first supplying of that set or equipment pursuant to the making of a rental agreement, and “offer for rent” and “expose for rent”' shall be construed accordingly;

“sell” includes transfer by means of conditional sale or hire purchase, and “offer for sale” and “expose for sale” shall be construed accordingly;

“television programme” means any programme (with or without sounds) which—

(a)

is produced wholly or partly to be seen on television; and

(b)

consists of moving or still images or of legible text or of any combination of those things; and

“wide-screen television service” means a television service that consists wholly or partially of programmes produced and edited to be displayed with a height-width ratio of 16:9.

Wide-Screen Television Services

4.—(1) Any person providing (within the meaning of section 32(4)(a) of the Communications Act 2003) a public electronic communications network established to distribute digital television services shall have a duty to ensure that it is capable of distributing wide-screen television services and television programmes.

(2) Any person who receives and redistributes television services or television programmes to the public shall have a duty to redistribute in wide-screen format all television services and television programmes he receives in that format.

(3) The duties in paragraphs (1) and (2) shall be enforced as if they were conditions set under section 45 of the Communications Act 2003.

The Common Scrambling Algorithm and the transmission of unscrambled images

5.—(1) No person shall sell or rent out or otherwise make available, or offer or expose for sale or rent or otherwise for making available, any equipment to which this regulation applies unless that equipment possesses the capability—

(a) to allow the descrambling of signals according to the common European scrambling algorithm as administered by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI); and

(b) to display television programmes that have been transmitted unscrambled:

save that if the equipment is rented, this regulation applies only if the rentee is in compliance with the relevant rental agreement.

(2) This regulation applies to all consumer equipment intended for the reception of digital television signals and capable of descrambling such signals, except equipment which was put on the market in any member State before 25th July 2003.

Interoperability for analogue television sets

6.—(1) No person shall sell or rent out, or offer or expose for sale or rent, an analogue television set to which this regulation applies unless it is fitted with at least one standardised open interface socket permitting the simple connection of peripherals.

(2) This regulation applies to any analogue television set with an integral viewing screen of visible diagonal greater than 42cm, except a television set which was put on the market in any member State before 25th July 2003.

(3) In this regulation—

“a standardised open interface socket” means an interface that would be recognised as such in all member States;

“peripherals” includes additional decoders and digital receivers.

Interoperability for digital television sets

7.—(1) No person shall sell or rent out, or offer or expose for sale or rent, a digital television set to which this regulation applies unless it is fitted with at least one standardised open interface socket that permits the—

(a) simple connection of peripherals; and

(b) passage of all the elements of a digital television signal.

(2) This regulation applies to any digital television set with an integral viewing screen of visible diagonal greater than 30cm, except a television set which was put on the market in any member State before 25th July 2003.

(3) In this regulation—

“a standardised open interface socket” means an interface that would be recognised as such in all member States or conforms to an industry-wide specification;

“digital television signal” includes information relating to interactive and conditionally accessed services.

Enforcement

8.  The Schedule to these Regulations shall have effect for the purposes of enforcement of regulations 5, 6 and 7.

Stephen Timms,

Minister of State for Energy, E-Commerce and Postal Services,

Department of Trade and Industry

17th July 2003