What changed between the plenary report and the adopted text

Changed:Recital 4: (4) However, the internal market for media services is insufficiently integrated. In particular, different national rules and approaches related to media pluralism and editorial independence, insufficient cooperation between national regulatory authorities or bodies as well as opaque and unfair allocation of public and private economic resources make it difficult for media market players to operate and expand across borders and lead to an uneven level playing field across the Union. The integrity of the internal market for media services may also be challenged by providers that systematically engage in disinformation, including information manipulation and interference, and abuse the internal market freedoms, including by state-controlled media service providers financed by certain third countries. Furthermore, common minimum standards for national rules and approaches related to media pluralism and editorial independence should be established, while respecting the competence of the Member States.TheStates. The establishment of such standards is a pre-condition to the functioning of the internal market.

Changed:Recital 21: (21) Media service providers should adopt internal safeguards in line with their structures and needs. The Recommendation that accompanies this Regulation50Regulation51 provides a catalogue of voluntary internal safeguards that could be considered within media companies in this regard. This Regulation should not be construed to the effect of depriving the owners of private media service providers of their prerogative to decide on the composition of their editorial teams or on their editorial line, to set strategic or general goals and to foster the growth and financial viability of their undertakings. However, this Regulation should also not be construed as meaning that the owner or corporate manager of a media service provider can unduly interfere with the work of its editors and editors-in-chief operating in accordance with its established editorial line by, for example, compelling them to add or remove content before it is made available to the public. In this respect, this Regulation recognises that the goal of ensuring and fostering editorial independence needs to be reconciled with the legitimate rights and interests of private media owners. / (deleted)

Changed:Recital 35 a (new): (35a) Within the meaning of this regulation,Regulation, obligations for restrictions of content should not prevent very large online platforms from fighting disinformation or protecting minors. In this context, obligations should not apply in instances of down-ranking, labelling of content or diluting its visibility (such as blurring of images) when they are in line with the code of practice on disinformation and other relevant Union law. At the same time, it should be recognised that services acting in a not-for-profit purpose capacity, such as online encyclopaedias as well as educational and scientific repositories, should not be considered very large online platforms for the purpose of Article 17.

Changed:Recital 37: (37) Users of audio and audiovisual media services should be able to effectively choose the audio and audiovisual content they want to listen to or watch according to their preferences. Their freedom in this area may however be constrained by commercial practices in the media sector, namely agreements for content prioritisation between manufacturers of devices or providers of user interfaces controlling or managing access to and use of audio and audiovisual media services, such as connected televisions or car audio systems, and media service providers. Prioritisation can be implemented, for example, on the home screen of a device, through hardware, including remote controls, or software shortcuts, applications and search areas, which have implications on the users’ behaviour, who may be unduly incentivised to choose certain audio or audiovisual media offers over others. Users of audio or audiovisual media services should have the possibility to change, in a simple and user-friendly manner, the settings and default layout, including the configuration of audiovisual media services or of applications allowing users to access such services, on a user interface or on devices controlling and managing access to, and use of, audiovisual media services, without prejudice to measures to ensure the appropriate prominence of audiovisual media services of general interest, in particular measures implementing Article 7a and 7 b7b of Directive 2010/13/EU, taken in the pursuit of legitimate pu…pub…