Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister of culture of Ukraine, said in his welcoming speech that the Ukrainian film and television industry is facing a new challenge with regard to filling the broadcasting with Ukrainian products of high quality and a variety of genres. Speaking about the tools, V. Kyrylenko noted that the government can't apply a system of tax incentives on a massive scale. Instead of that, it is proposed to use mechanisms of various financial incentives.

In his turn, Yuriy Artemenko, the Head of the National Broadcasting Council said he did not believe in self-regulation of the market, and that some journalists still don’t feel the changes which took place in the society. Therefore, in his opinion, it is necessary to amend the current legislation taking into account the practices of other countries.

Mykola Knyazhytskyy, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Culture and Spirituality, spoke on two forms of financing of Ukrainian cinema. One of them, governmental, is to introduce a certain fee charged on distribution certificates based on every minute of a foreign movie made in a foreign country. The Members of Parliament are also considering a possibility to attract funds from lotteries to support Ukrainian culture in general, and cinema in particular. Mykola Knyazhytskyy told about the experience of Poland and said that combining the national and foreign experience it could be possible come up with the amount enough to support the Ukrainian cinema.

The Council of Europe representative Patrick Penninckx, Head of Information Society Department, Information Society and Action against Crime Directorate, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law (DGI), Council of Europe, emphasized that freedom of expression needs protection and support, and local decisions taken in Ukraine should be based on the standards of the Council of Europe. Any restrictions on freedom of expression should be defined by the law, be proportionate to the problem they are trying to solve and should comply with the principles of the democratic society.

Jurgis Vilčinskas, Head of Press and Information Section, Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, noted that public broadcasting is an important investor in the national production of audiovisual and television products in almost all EU member states. Public broadcasting promotes introduction of innovations into new types of services, for example, interactive and online content (for instance, in Estonia and Great Britain). Mr. Vilčinskas said that it is important to create in Ukraine a genuine public broadcasting as a united public television and radio company with a proper financial and editorial independence of the National Public Television Company. To achieve that, it is important to adopt the Draft Law On Amendments to the Laws of Ukraine On Public Television and Radio Broadcasting in Ukraine, No. 1357. Mr. Vilčinskas told about the European Commission Programme Creative Europe, and invited Ukraine to join this program in the nearest future.

Sally Broughton Micova, an expert of the Council of Europe from the UK, spoke about the standards which Ukraine should adhere to, in particular, those specified in the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) which will be implemented by Ukraine during two years, and the European Convention on Transfrontier Television (CTT) and told about the experience of using broadcasting quotas (based on time, genre, financing, language) and subsidies, as well as about the importance of implementation of public broadcasting.

Mrs. Broughton Micova reminded that in accordance with the standards of the Council of Europe public broadcasting should be provided sustainable and accountable funding (Rec.1878 (2009)), independent, accountable, transparent management (CM/Rec.(2012)1)   and  provide television and radio in minority languages (Charter for Regional and Minority Languages).

Natalja Gorscak, Council of Europe expert (Slovenia), emphasized the importance of establishing clear rules of the game on the market which means a unified legislative regulation mechanism, and determine realistic quotas which can be observed in practice. Among other things quite high fines were mentioned which are implied in European countries for violation of the media laws.

The roundtable discussion also touched upon the issue of copyright and associated intellectual property rights, broadcasting of Ukrainian films on television channels, cooperation of producers of films and television movies, the need for promotion campaigns for films made in Ukraine, etc. Experts noted that Ukrainian producers have made only 450 films since 1991, therefore, they discussed the need to expand the types of production, creation of TV series, documentaries and etc.

Andriy Kulykov, a media expert and journalist, who was moderating the discussion, undertook to analyze all proposals on possible mechanisms for solution of the specified problem. The recommendations provided by  the participants will be summed up and published during two week period.