Industry figures and organisations have generally reacted positively to the European Commission’s amendments to the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
Cable Europe, which represents cable networks, said it welcomed the safeguarding of the Country of Origin principal and encouragement for platforms to invest in viewer protection technologies.
Van Weede
Caroline van Weede, Managing Director of Cable Europe, said: “We support the European Commission in the broadly deregulatory, de-minimis approach taken for a large part of the provisions which will ensure that old and new players can be subject to a similar regulatory environment. It’s imperative in such a fast-changing and frequently disrupted environment that innovation and investment are encouraged. However, we call upon the Institutions to move away from prescriptive, quota driven approaches and focus instead on incentivizing the audiovisual industry, which ultimately reaps rewards for the Digital Society as a whole”.
French regulator the CSA said it was pleased the fundamental principle of independence of regulators had been maintained. “Recent European examples, such as Croatia or Poland, have shown the need to consolidate the independence of regulatory authorities whose role is essential for media pluralism and freedom of expression,” the organisation said in a statement.
One party that was unhappy was Netflix, which faces being brought under European regulation, and required to invest further in European production.
“Our members around the world love European programming, that’s why our investment in European programming, including Netflix original titles created in Europe, is growing. We appreciate the Commission’s objective to have European production flourish, however the proposed measures won’t actually achieve that,” Netflix spokesman Joris Evers told Broadband TV News. “We have committed hundreds of millions of euros in European productions so far, an investment that continues to grow. Our first Netflix original series created in Europe, Marseille, premiered in early May and is getting strong viewing everywhere. A second Europe-produced Netflix original, The Crown, launches later this year. Additionally, we have series in the works in Spain, Italy and Germany and are actively looking for additional projects.”
John Enser, a partners in Olswang’s media practice observed existing AVMS Regulation included a general obligation for Member States to ensure that on-demand services promote EU content, it gave them a broad discretion as to how to deliver that obligation.
“Most countries have not introduced these quotas, but these new rules will obligate almost all on-demand services to include at least 20% European works in their catalogues. In addition to this, the proposals also now mandate that Member States ensure prominence of European works. In an on-demand environment, the prominence obligation is likely to prove highly controversial and subjective – it will be interesting to see how this is enforced, and whether a “European works” genre in a list of genres will be enough.
“Even more radical, and clearly driven by French objections to (in particular) Netflix, is the loosening of the COO principle to allow for contributions to national content investment funds. Given that COO is such a cornerstone of the Directive, there have been widely articulated concerns that once the principle is breached in one area, it may lead to other countries looking for special treatment.”
The Association of Commercial Television said the proposals were a step in the right direction to adapt the legal framework to the current and future media landscape.
“However, commercial broadcasters are concerned that these do not sufficiently reflect the radically changing media landscape, where viewers are watching content increasingly through a widening range of online, on-demand platforms. In order for commercial broadcasters to continue to finance and produce high quality European content, they need to be able to compete freely and fairly with all content providers regardless of platform.”
https://twitter.com/GOettingerEU/status/735501746924048386?lang=en-gb
While our members welcome the proposals to deregulate some advertising rules such as those governing Product Placement and Sponsorship, and to protect the Country of Origin principle as a key facilitator of cross-border distribution, many rules remain which apply to some platforms and not others. Further deregulation is necessary to enable fair competition for all media services across different platforms.
Proposals to liberalise advertising rules on quantitative limits, sponsorship and product placement may not ultimately be welcomed by viewers, but have found favour with advertising body egta.
egta president Jan Isenbart commented: “the new proposal delivers some much-needed flexibility to the rules on commercial communications, and the Commission should be applauded for doing so. However, there are still too many specific rules that only apply to linear broadcasters. We believe that more ambition could still ensure a more level playing field, enabling the sustainable production and financing of original, premium European content.”
The EBU said the reform of the Directive was a step in the right direction and appropriately identifies the areas that need to be updated in light of media convergence and new viewing habits.
Head of European Affairs Nicola Frank said: “Today’s audiovisual media landscape offers viewers and service providers more than ever before. But there are also certain risks which can and should be attenuated with well-adapted and future-proof rules.
“One risk is that people start missing out on programmes with a public interest angle quite simply because they are no longer easy to find. We want viewers to always be aware that a rich offer of programmes of public value is available, and just one click or push of the button away.”
