Communications Act 2003

[F1 368A Meaning of “on-demand programme service” U.K.

(1) For the purposes of this Act, a service is an “on-demand programme service” if—

(a) its principal purpose is the provision of programmes the form and content of which are comparable to the form and content of programmes normally included in television programme services;

(b) access to it is on-demand;

(c) there is a person who has editorial responsibility for it;

(d) it is made available by that person for use by members of the public; and

(e) that person is under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom for the purposes of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

(2) Access to a service is on-demand if—

(a) the service enables the user to view, at a time chosen by the user, programmes selected by the user from among the programmes included in the service; and

(b) the programmes viewed by the user are received by the user by means of an electronic communications network (whether before or after the user has selected which programmes to view).

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2)(a), the fact that a programme may be viewed only within a period specified by the provider of the service does not prevent the time at which it is viewed being one chosen by the user.

(4) A person has editorial responsibility for a service if that person has general control—

(a) over what programmes are included in the range of programmes offered to users; and

(b) over the manner in which the programmes are organised in that range;

and the person need not have control of the content of individual programmes or of the broadcasting or distribution of the service (and see section 368R(6)).

(5) If an on-demand programme service (“the main service”) offers users access to a relevant ancillary service, the relevant ancillary service is to be treated for the purposes of this Part as a part of the main service.

(6) In subsection (5), “relevant ancillary service” means a service or facility that consists of or gives access to assistance for disabled people in relation to some or all of the programmes included in the main service.

(7) In this section “assistance for disabled people” has the same meaning as in Part 3.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Pt. 4A inserted (19.12.2009) by Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/2979), regs. 1(1), 2