The viewing hours considered primetime on television could be extended by one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. The primetime sections will be 06:00-10:00 and 17:00- 00:00. The proposed amendment to the Code of Audiovisual Services has been put up for public consultations by the relevant parliamentary commission.
The draft is to detail and clarify the rules regarding primetime and self-promotional ads. In particular, it is proposed to consider self-promotional ads as locally created content.
The proposed amendment also says that media service providers will be required to broadcast at least 80% of their locally created content in Romanian. An exception will be providers whose media services address communities in administrative-territorial units where a certain ethnic minority represents a majority. In this case, the minimum requirement for locally created content in Romanian will be 25%, with a similar requirement for locally created content in the language of the respective minority.
Also, broadcasters will be required to run films with dubbing or subtitles in Romanian, keeping the original soundtrack or, as the case may be, the licensed language version. Children’s films shall be dubbed in Romanian, with the exception of providers with ethnic minority audiences.