Following Brexit, over 1,000 exported TV channels will find themselves exposed. They originate in the UK with a Ofcom licence but will need a new one after the country leaves the EU.
Over the last six months, Expert Media Parners (EMP) has conducted a wide-ranging research exercise across the whole of the EU and EEA to see which countries offer a realistic opportunity to Ofcom licensees who may be looking to move to another regulatory jurisdiction should the UK government Brexit negotiations not offer a satisfactory outcome.
EMR’s research Brexit and the UK Television Industry published earlier this year identified over a thousand exported TV channels that may need to acquire new licences outside the UK. The league table identifies the most likely places they may look to move to.
The Netherlands comes out on top of the countries with the best score to uplink TV channels to the rest of Europe. And Levira of Estonia already makes a Brexit pitch.
“We have had in-depth conversations with regulators, governments, channel operators, infrastructure companies and lawyers across Europe,” commented Ed Hall, managing partner at EMP.
“The data we have collected is detailed and important and is of vital interest to channels who broadcast to the EU. This league table is a real snapshot of what could potentially happen”.
EMR based its research around many factors including the regulatory environment, the ease of doing business, legal frameworks and language barriers and scored the countries out of 100.
The Brexit Top Five countries are: 1) Netherlands with a score of 80; 2) Ireland (78); 3) Estonia (76); 4) Malta (74) and 5) Belgium (73).
“We expect this to be a changing landscape over the coming months and as negotiations progress,” according to EMR.