and less-widely spoken languages will be marginalised, leading to a reduction in consumer choice online as their consumers are serviced increasingly by pan-EU international platforms. National online offerings would be impoverished, only being able to secure content rights with no wider international appeal – digital innovation will decline as online rights become harder to secure. As rights are increasingly sold to pan-EU platforms for pan-EU distribution, multi-territory funding for European production will decline. This will mean fewer European productions and a greater market share for large-scale, global content produced outside of the EU. At risk: EU drama production. As TV production values have risen to cinematic quality, broadcasters have sought to spread the risk via either co-productions or pre-sales in different EU markets. Pan-EU distribution would make such European productions very difficult to finance, as the pre-finance market relies on a broadcaster being able to secure exclusivity to distribute in their home market. ITV Studios’ Titanic illustrates the dual role of presales and co-funding in financing content: it was co-funded by, and presold to ITV Studios and 7 other European broadcasters (see annex). At risk: compelling online content services. Broadcasters are able to offer their viewers a full range of programmes through national online catch-up services. If pan-EU distribution becomes compulsory then premium content, such as high-end drama and sports rights, is likely to be withdrawn from these services in order to preserve revenues from broadcast distribution in other European markets. At risk: news and local programming. News and local programming is expensive to produce and is financed thanks to the return that broadcasters get from high-value content. In a scenario where only larger content aggregators would be able to acquire rights to high-value content, the ability for local broadcasters to invest in news and local programming will be seriously affected. At risk: EU-wide availability of football. Currently European football leagues licence their rights in their home country and also across the EU, at different prices which reflects different levels of demand: the result is the widespread availability of matches across the EU. De facto pan-EU distribution will undermine this model with, for example, national platforms securing pan-EU distribution rights in order to maintain exclusivity. We urge the Member States to model carefully, together with the sector and taking into account existing EC studies, the possible structural consequences of any regulatory-driven shift away from current models of licensing of content. 16/06/2015
and less-widely spoken languages will be marginalised, leading to a reduction in consumer choice online as their consumers are serviced increasingly by pan-EU international platforms. National online offerings would be impoverished, only being able to secure content rights with no wider international appeal – digital innovation will decline as online rights become harder to secure. As rights are increasingly sold to pan-EU platforms for pan-EU distribution, multi-territory funding for European production will decline. This will mean fewer European productions and a greater market share for large-scale, global content produced outside of the EU. At risk: EU drama production. As TV production values have risen to cinematic quality, broadcasters have sought to spread the risk via either co-productions or pre-sales in different EU markets. Pan-EU distribution would make such European productions very difficult to finance, as the pre-finance market relies on a broadcaster being able to secure exclusivity to distribute in their home market. ITV Studios’ Titanic illustrates the dual role of presales and co-funding in financing content: it was co-funded by, and presold to ITV Studios and 7 other European broadcasters (see annex). At risk: compelling online content services. Broadcasters are able to offer their viewers a full range of programmes through national online catch-up services. If pan-EU distribution becomes compulsory then premium content, such as high-end drama and sports rights, is likely to be withdrawn from these services in order to preserve revenues from broadcast distribution in other European markets. At risk: news and local programming. News and local programming is expensive to produce and is financed thanks to the return that broadcasters get from high-value content. In a scenario where only larger content aggregators would be able to acquire rights to high-value content, the ability for local broadcasters to invest in news and local programming will be seriously affected. At risk: EU-wide availability of football. Currently European football leagues licence their rights in their home country and also across the EU, at different prices which reflects different levels of demand: the result is the widespread availability of matches across the EU. De facto pan-EU distribution will undermine this model with, for example, national platforms securing pan-EU distribution rights in order to maintain exclusivity. We urge the Member States to model carefully, together with the sector and taking into account existing EC studies, the possible structural consequences of any regulatory-driven shift away from current models of licensing of content. 16/06/2015
act-position-on-territorial-licensing---final.docx