The Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACTE) has given its backing to new support for the block’s creative industries coming from the European Parliament.
Europe’s Media in the Digital Decade: An Action Plan to Support Recovery and Transformation puts forward special tax policies as well as fiscal and financial incentives to boost production and investment. It also includes the establishment of EU insurance guarantees for audiovisual co-productions and rules to ensure catalogues of on-demand services contain a share of European works of at least 30%.
“This is truly a crucial moment to strengthen the EU’s media and audiovisual sector”, rapporteur Dace Melbarde, said. “The media ecosystem was fragile even before the pandemic but the crisis has reinforced the existing challenges it faces, as well as created new ones. Audiences are increasingly shifting to digital platforms, and the income from these is disproportionally flowing to the global players.”
MEPs noted the increase of production costs due to stricter health and safety measures following the COVID pandemic.
“The Report recognises the important role that the media and audiovisual sectors play by providing news and entertainment to millions of Europeans. Supporting recovery for our sectors will require a holistic industrial strategy that the sector has long asked for,” said a statement from the ACTE.MEPs also pointed to the dangers of the “disproportionate economic impact” and “predatory behaviour” of global online platforms that dominate data and advertising markets and have the power to remove legal content provided by media services – a clear reference
