BRUSSELS, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) on Thursday adopted new legislation, designed to cover all media services and relax rules on TV advertising.

    "Today the dawn of Europe's convergent audiovisual services industry is breaking," said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, after the new legislation was approved the European Parliament.

    "With these modernized rules that improve legal certainty and reaffirm the country of establishment principle, Europe's audiovisual policies will better meet the demands of a fast-moving and dynamic industry while maintaining high consumer protection standards," she added.

    In response to new transmission techniques, the new legislation, named Audiovisual Media Services without Frontiers Directive, offers a comprehensive legal framework that covers all audiovisual media services, ranging from traditional TV broadcasts to emerging on-demand TV-like services.

    As a revised version of the 1989 TV without Frontiers Directive, the new legislation relaxes rules on TV advertising, under which the quantitative limits on TV advertising are reduced to a minimum and made more flexible.

    While the 12 minutes per hour cap on advertising is still in place, the daily upper limit of three hours' advertising is removed.

    For films, made-for-television films, children and information shows, the minimum interval between each commercial break will be cut to 30 minutes from 45 currently.

    The new rules also open the door for product placements, where a sponsor's product is featured in the show, but oblige broadcasters to inform consumers when it takes place and with the exception of children and informational shows.

    However, the new directive only serve as a minimum requirement, which means member states can feel free to set their tighter control over advertising.

    The modernized rules remain fully based on the country of origin principle, under which EU broadcasters only have to respect the rules of the country where they are based and not into which they broadcast.

    For example, it's up to the French government to ban product placement, but if a British program containing product placement was broadcasted to France, it can not be blocked.

    The new rules also require member states to protect minors, to promote European works and independent audiovisual productions, and to prohibit content that would incite religious or racial hatred.

    The European Commission hoped the new directive can full apply in 2009 as EU member states will be given 24 months to convert the new rules into national law.