The film industry is up in arms against the inclusion of the audiovisual sector in the planned evaluation of the EU’s geo-blocking regulation, expected by the end of the year.

At time of publication, approximately seven in every 10 responses to the European Commission’s call for evidence on geo-blocking were submitted by the film and cinema industry. A number of additional anonymous responses and replies by EU citizens also repeated the industry’s feedback, but Euractiv could not confirm their identity.

This mass response was part of a coordinated action, with several of the replies being identical. Several respondents also attached the same document, which was recycled from a prior instance of the industry lobby action on the topic in January 2024.  The document lists their arguments and was signed by 711 organisations.

The industry hopes that the Commission maintains the status quo, where the audiovisual sector, including Video-on-Demand platforms (VOD) such as Netflix, Disney+, or Amazon Prime, offers different catalogues in different countries, based on licensing rights.

The geo-blocking regulation, in force since 2018, forbids unjustified barriers to cross-border access to products or services across the EU single market. The regulation is focused on e-commerce platforms.

However, copyright-protected content and the audiovisual sector are currently exempt from the rules.

What does the industry want?
One of the organisations who participated in coordinating responses is the International Federation of Film Distributors and Publishers Association (FIAD), which is concerned that the industry would suffer from inclusion in the regulation, due to its large reliance on territorial licensing of films to distributors to finance production.

Currently, film production is financed in part with public and private funding. However, additional funding comes from licensing agreements in different countries. With copyright being territorially limited, this allows film rights to be sold in different markets, thus multiplying the origins of financing.

However, “once a film is licensed to a VOD platform, in a world with no geo-blocking, there would be no incentives for other distributors to purchase the rights anymore”, FIAD Secretary General, Robert Heslop told Euractiv. For filmmakers, this would mean more limited access to financing.

Consumers want an end to geo-blocking
“It is inexplicable, particularly for younger consumers, that geo-blocking should continue to exist in a Digital Single Market,” consumer organisation BEUC’s Head of Communication, Sébastien Pant, told Euractiv.

Beyond consumer frustration, Pant defended that getting rid of geo-blocking would benefit cultural diversity, as it would “enable consumers to watch movies, listen to music and read books from across the EU’s cultural landscape in the most convenient – and legal – way,” he added.

In the 2020 short term review of the legislation, the Commission cautiously recognised “potential benefits” for consumers to have cross-border access to copyrighted works, including audiovisual content. However, it also found that any new proposal should take into account the industry’s reliance on territorial copyrighting.

Access to media in border regions where citizens speak the languages of their neighbouring country has also been a point of discussion in the past, with European parliamentarians such as Karen Melchior (Renew, Denmark) and Pascal Arimont (EPP, Germany) repeatedly emphasising the need to find solutions for these populations.

For shorter stays, like vacations, the portability regulation allows consumers to use their subscriptions abroad, including on VOD services, without being geo-blocked.

A recurring debate

The debate on whether to include audiovisual content in the geo-blocking rules is has been re-opened several times since the 2020 review.

In 2023, the Parliament’s consumer protection committee (IMCO) issued a report that initially called for the Commission to end geo-blocking on audiovisual content. However, following a last minute push by the industry, the text was amended and the sector remained excluded.

In January this year, the European Court of Auditors again asked the Commission to make a new assessment on whether to include the sector, to which the Commission agreed.

The deadline for submitting replies is set for Tuesday.

By the end of day Friday, Dutch e-commerce website, Thuiswinkel.org, was the only company that replied to the call for evidence without speaking about audiovisual media.

[OM]