The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has opened a three-month consultation period on proposals to revise the EU directive that governs the way television is run.
Submissions are invited from the industry, consumers and other interested bodies, which will then be used to inform discussions on the Television Without Frontiers directive.
It said it was particularly interested in views on whether the directive should be extended in scope to become the "Audio-visual Media Services Directive".
If that were the case, the directive would cover not only television broadcasts, but would extend to the internet, mobile networks, terrestrial, cable and satellite broadcasting services.
The government is concerned about the move, and it is widely seen as unnecessary by the media industry with companies such as ITV, Yahoo! and Vodafone criticising it. However, broadcasting minister Shaun Woodward said the government needed to know more about what the industry thinks and the likely impact on new-media services.
Woodward said: "The proposed changes could have a major impact on the development of services that people access over the internet and on their mobile phones. The economic and cultural impact of the proposals will be substantial, and they could also extend red tape where we should be cutting it."
The directive was originally created in 1989 and revised in 1997. It aims to ensure the free flow of television programmes and broadcasting services throughout the EU, ensuring they keep to minimum standards on content, and stick to rules on advertising, teleshopping and sponsorship.
The EU is planning to reduce restrictions on product placement in the next revision.
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