The regulatory framework governing the audiovisual and multimedia industry consists of the Audiovisual Law no. 504/2002, as amended and supplemented, and the Law no. 41/1994 on the organisation and functioning of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company and the Romanian Television Company, republished. The drafting and updating of these texts of law regard for transposition of the provisions included in the Directive 2010/13/EU on audiovisual mass media services and the whole body of regulations and strategic approaches making up the acquis communautaire. Support from the public budget of the activities of the two public broadcasting services falls into the State aid category and is treated as such.
Of particular importance for the development of the domestic audiovisual and multimedia industry and independent employment within, are the provisions according to which broadcasters must reserve “for European works a majority proportion of their broadcasting time, excluding the time allotted to news, sports events, games, advertising, teletext services and teleshopping”; in addition, broadcasters are expected “to reserve at least 10% of their transmission time, excluding the time assigned for news, sports events, games, advertising, teletext services and teleshopping, or alternately, at the discretion of the Member State, at least 10% of their programming budget, for European works created by producers who are independent of broadcasters”.
The audiovisual industry does not fall directly within the material competence of the Ministry of Culture, even though, in terms of governmental responsibility, this ministry is required to fulfil a duty of representation.
The importance of this industry cannot be sufficiently emphasized, given especially its role as the producer of audiovisual and media products of all genres, which employs or is expected to employ a significant share of the human resources specialised in the field in Romania and which, at the same time, generates significant economic growth. In this respect, we should also emphasize the fact that the aforementioned regulatory framework also covers the provision of audiovisual media services on demand, except for those web services that do not compete with the audiovisual media services.
Table. Economic performance – Audiovisual and multimedia
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| 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
| Turnover evolution by CCS sub-sectors (thousand RON) | 3,373,213 | 3,788,566 | 4,059,569 | 4,665,031 | 4,667,413 |
| Employment evolution by sub-sectors | 13,582 | 14,341 | 15,147 | 15,833 | 16,800 |
| Profit evolution by sub-sectors (thousand RON) | -30,282 | -91,648 | -78,935 | -7,546 | 243,037 |
| Labour productivity evolution (thousand RON turnover/number of employees) | 248 | 264 | 268 | 295 | 278 |
| Number of companies | 3,212 | 3,553 | 3,899 | 4,232 | 4,538 |
Source: Borg Design Database, INCFC analyses
With a very high labour productivity (second only to advertising) and a spectacular rebound of turnover after the recession, the audiovisual sector sees a constant increase in the analysed period. Related to the economic performance of the advertising industry, which it follows in terms of turnover evolution, the sector is characterised by a large number of private organisations compared to the number of the public ones.
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