Over 600 organisations from the film, cinema, and audiovisual sector in Europe have issued a joint statement calling on the European Parliament to oppose a call for future inclusion of audiovisual services in the scope of the EU Geo-blocking Regulation.
The group led by the Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe and including the EBU, Canal Plus, UEFA, Cineworld, RTL, Sky and TF1 argue that the errosion of territorial exclusivity would also have a direct and negative impact on consumer welfare resulting in less choice in content, distribution, and access options as well as higher prices.
“Consecutive impact-assessments and independent economic analysis have consistently concluded that erosion of territorial exclusivity through a ban on the use of geo-blocking in the context of financing and distributing films and audiovisual content also erodes the economic value of the rights concerned with a direct and negative impact on the financing and distribution opportunities as well as on recoupment of investments of future film and audiovisual content in Europe,” they said in the statement issued Wednesday.
According to Oliver & Ohlbaum, 103 million people in the EU could be exposed to higher prices when accessing coverage of top-flight competitions if a ban on geo-blocking were to be introduced.
The European Parliament’s IMCO Committee is seeking to include copyright protected works in the scope of geo-blocking regulation.
IMCO says the regulation would ensure customers in the EU have access to online interfaces, goods and services, without being discriminated against on the basis of their means of payment.
