The European Commission wants to make it easier for broadcasters like the BBC and Germany’s ZDF to make shows available online across the 28-nation EU under a planned copyright reform that is expected to meet fierce opposition from the media industry.
Under the EU executive’s plans outlined in a draft document seen by Reuters, broadcasters would be able to show content on their online platforms across the EU after securing the rights in their home country, which the Commission hopes will allow them to distribute their own productions more widely.
The reform would make it easier for services such as the BBC’s iPlayer or Sky’s Sky Go to show their content online across borders, but it would not oblige them to do so, the document says.
However, the Commission will put in place a monitoring system to assess the cross-border availability of broadcasters’ online services.
Film and TV show producers as well as the sports industry staunchly oppose the reform
The reform would apply to broadcasters’ catch-up TV services, which are only available for a limited time, and live streaming, but not their on-demand catalogues and online streaming platforms like Netflix, the document says.
Film and TV show producers as well as the sports industry staunchly oppose the reform. They fear it will lead to de facto pan-European licensing, diluting the value of exclusive rights and squeezing out smaller broadcasters who would be unable to afford pan-EU rights.
Films and TV shows are often financed by selling exclusive distribution rights on a country-by-country basis to secure investment.
The Commission does not expect the copyright reform to make it impossible to license films, TV shows and soccer matches on a territorial, or country-by-country, basis because rightsholders could still ask broadcasters to block viewers in another country from accessing the content during licensing negotiations.
But rightsholders and commercial broadcasters fear that a separate EU antitrust case involving Hollywood studios’ movie-licensing deals with British pay-TV group Sky UK could limit their ability to ask for content to be blocked for foreign viewers.
The EU’s antitrust arm has charged six US film studios, including Disney and Twentieth Century Fox, and Sky with illegally limiting access across the EU to movies shown on pay-TV channels.
Paramount Pictures, part of Viacom, settled with the Commission in July by agreeing to allow viewers outside Britain and Ireland to access films and other content broadcast by Sky UK online and via satellite.
Commercial broadcasters worry that the Commission’s planned reform, coupled with competition law developments limiting their ability to stop viewers in other EU countries accessing their services, could undermine territorial licensing.
The Commission has in the past said it does not want to undermine the film and TV industry’s financing model nor the principle of territoriality. (Reuters)
EU may require YouTube to seek deals with music industry Websites such as Google’s YouTube, DailyMotion and Pinterest could be required to seek licences or revenue-sharing deals with artists for content that is uploaded by their users as part of the European Union’s planned copyright overhaul. The music industry has long complained services such asYouTube do not pay artists enough for their music and has urged regulators to close what it calls the “value gap”. They say Alphabet Inc’s Google makes a vast amount of money from ad-supported services such as YouTube, but only a small share of it goes to the music industry. The Commission is looking at imposing an obligation on platforms hosting user-uploaded content such as YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion to seek agreements with rightsholders “reflecting the economic value of the use made of the protected content”, according to a draft paper, seen by Reuters, listing the preferred options for the copyright reform. The agreement could take the form of a copyright licence or a monetisation agreement such as sharing of revenue, an option that is already widely used. The Commission also wants online sharing platforms to put in place “appropriate and proportionate measures, such as content identification technologies, to ensure the functioning” of the agreements with rightsholders. The proposal is still being discussed and the final version is expected in late September. Google says YouTube alone has generated over $2 billion for rightsholders by striking licensing agreements with music labels and publishing societies worldwide. YouTube uses Content ID, which automatically identifies an artist’s content, to give rightsholders the choice of whether to leave it up, block it or monetise it through a revenue-sharing deal. Google says over 98 per cent of all YouTube copyright removal claims are done through Content ID and the music industry chooses to monetise 95 per cent of its Content ID claims. But rightsholders say they do not have enough bargaining power and are presented with a “take it or leave it” deal since the online platforms have no obligation to negotiate with them. The draft paper said its proposals would likely increase revenues for rightsholders, but did not estimate by how much. (Reuters) Films and TV shows are often financed by selling exclusive distribution rights on a country-by-country basis to secure investment.