Brexit is a fraught issue beset by ongoing uncertainties. It seems no part of the UK’s international and domestic life has been left untouched, the self-inflicted blow to the UK’s hard power has come hand in hand with a depletion in its soft power in the form of its cultural exports – namely its audiovisual media services industry.
The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (“the Deal”) and Northern Ireland Protocol were finalised over Christmas of 2020 and came into force just a few days later, consists of three pillars – a Free Trade Agreement, a partnership on security and a horizontal agreement governance. When the deal came into force, the UK no longer enjoyed freedom of movement of people, goods and services.
The European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) has produced numerous reports looking at Brexit and the impact on the audiovisual sector, with contributions from the UK’s Department for Digital Culture, Media & Sport, British Film Institute and Ofcom as well as other European media and government organisations and stakeholders. Their research has been ongoing and will likely continue as the dust settles from Brexit.
Prior to 2021, the UK led Europe in its share of TV channels broadcasting inside the EU, a 2021 report from the EAO found that the UK made up 21% of the audiovisual market revenues in the EU28 in 2020. Since the enactment of the deal, the UK no longer enjoys freedom of reception and retransmission of UK-based channels. The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) is the main instrument to regulate broadcasting and video on-demand services in the EU is bound by the ‘country of origin’ principle, which means that EU countries are now able to restrict UK-based TV channels as they are now a third country, though the 22 EEA countries who are party to the ECTT (European Convention on Transfrontier Television) are obliged to allow for freedom of reception for UK-based services, this obligation is interpreted differently in each country’s domestic law.
Now that the UK is no longer bound under the AVMSD, they are no longer bound to the European Works quota in the UK, and EU countries are no longer bound to give the UK its share of those quotas on their domestic channels. This has further impacted the popularity and dissemination of UK creative works on EU channels. Ofcom has retained the quotas for domestic services but these are no longer include European works, nor is that secured by EU legislation. It also cannot do anything for the UK’s cultural exports into the EU.
This has translated into the UK dropping from the provision of 1230 television channels to the EU to 586, with channels aimed at the non-domestic market having dropped from 563 to 235. European providers are steadily filling that void, with the Netherlands and Spain’s channels growing in number and popularity. In turn, non-ECTT EU-based providers broadcasting in the UK must obtain a licence from Ofcom, the UK’s media regulator, and meet the UK’s broadcast regulations.
The UK’s participation in the Creative Europe programme, which promotes cross-border cooperation, platforms, networking and literary translation, development, distribution and access to audiovisual service and ensures transnational policy collaboration, came to an end in 2020. However, those projects already begun that ran past 1st January 2021 continued to receive funding, and some projects are open to UK applicants until 2027. Grants to the UK from this fund totalled €21.4m annually going to 91 companies and organisations and considered a key factor to their success, the UK Government has pledged to replace this funding but it will, as it has in replacing other EU funding streams, likely be significantly less. The UK has remained part of the Horizon Europe Programme, however, which has a strand to support “culture, creativity and inclusive society” and will enable cross-country cooperation and participation on certain projects.
UK-based media groups previously represented 27 of the top 100 audiovisual companies in the EU, as against 13 German and 13 French companies. The UK played host to a number of subsidiaries of major US media groups who used the UK as a gateway to Europe, and also produced Sky, BBC and ITV which were (relatively speaking) giants in the European market. It is assumed that the US media groups will move those subsidiaries into an EU country to conduct European operations, a further blow to the UK’s economic and cultural sectors.
The UK was a major player in the European audiovisual sector and its departure from the EU will be felt on both sides of the Channel. The UK has long been a prolific productor of creative and innovative television and cinema for its domestic and export market, and acted as the main hub for audiovisual media services in the EU – two out of five TV channels in the UK primarily target another EU market. Many of these channels will also move across the channel to continue catering to the European market.
As with all things Brexit, exporting and importing audiovisual services between the UK and EU has been made harder and will detriment most parties. While the gaps will be filled, companies and organisations shuffled into various jurisdictions, the sector will stabilise and the future of the industry will become clear in the coming years, however, joint ventures with the UK will be made more difficult thanks to ending the freedom of movement of people and goods, and make distribution more complicated. Some projects that would have stood a chance of success will never come to fruition, while others that might have been overlooked will now see the light of day. There will be winners and losers, the internet will likely provide fudged solutions in the short term until legislation catches up with the reality of media consumption in the UK and EU. In the meantime, it is another tragedy of Brexit that sharing our creative products is just that much harder.
Related Posts
Brexit is a fraught issue beset by ongoing uncertainties. It seems no part of the UK’s international and domestic life has been left untouched, the self-inflicted blow to the UK’s hard power has come hand in hand with a depletion in its soft power in the form of its cultural exports – namely its audiovisual media services industry.
The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (“the Deal”) and Northern Ireland Protocol were finalised over Christmas of 2020 and came into force just a few days later, consists of three pillars – a Free Trade Agreement, a partnership on security and a horizontal agreement governance. When the deal came into force, the UK no longer enjoyed freedom of movement of people, goods and services.
The European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) has produced numerous reports looking at Brexit and the impact on the audiovisual sector, with contributions from the UK’s Department for Digital Culture, Media & Sport, British Film Institute and Ofcom as well as other European media and government organisations and stakeholders. Their research has been ongoing and will likely continue as the dust settles from Brexit.
Prior to 2021, the UK led Europe in its share of TV channels broadcasting inside the EU, a 2021 report from the EAO found that the UK made up 21% of the audiovisual market revenues in the EU28 in 2020. Since the enactment of the deal, the UK no longer enjoys freedom of reception and retransmission of UK-based channels. The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) is the main instrument to regulate broadcasting and video on-demand services in the EU is bound by the ‘country of origin’ principle, which means that EU countries are now able to restrict UK-based TV channels as they are now a third country, though the 22 EEA countries who are party to the ECTT (European Convention on Transfrontier Television) are obliged to allow for freedom of reception for UK-based services, this obligation is interpreted differently in each country’s domestic law.
Now that the UK is no longer bound under the AVMSD, they are no longer bound to the European Works quota in the UK, and EU countries are no longer bound to give the UK its share of those quotas on their domestic channels. This has further impacted the popularity and dissemination of UK creative works on EU channels. Ofcom has retained the quotas for domestic services but these are no longer include European works, nor is that secured by EU legislation. It also cannot do anything for the UK’s cultural exports into the EU.
This has translated into the UK dropping from the provision of 1230 television channels to the EU to 586, with channels aimed at the non-domestic market having dropped from 563 to 235. European providers are steadily filling that void, with the Netherlands and Spain’s channels growing in number and popularity. In turn, non-ECTT EU-based providers broadcasting in the UK must obtain a licence from Ofcom, the UK’s media regulator, and meet the UK’s broadcast regulations.
The UK’s participation in the Creative Europe programme, which promotes cross-border cooperation, platforms, networking and literary translation, development, distribution and access to audiovisual service and ensures transnational policy collaboration, came to an end in 2020. However, those projects already begun that ran past 1st January 2021 continued to receive funding, and some projects are open to UK applicants until 2027. Grants to the UK from this fund totalled €21.4m annually going to 91 companies and organisations and considered a key factor to their success, the UK Government has pledged to replace this funding but it will, as it has in replacing other EU funding streams, likely be significantly less. The UK has remained part of the Horizon Europe Programme, however, which has a strand to support “culture, creativity and inclusive society” and will enable cross-country cooperation and participation on certain projects.
UK-based media groups previously represented 27 of the top 100 audiovisual companies in the EU, as against 13 German and 13 French companies. The UK played host to a number of subsidiaries of major US media groups who used the UK as a gateway to Europe, and also produced Sky, BBC and ITV which were (relatively speaking) giants in the European market. It is assumed that the US media groups will move those subsidiaries into an EU country to conduct European operations, a further blow to the UK’s economic and cultural sectors.
The UK was a major player in the European audiovisual sector and its departure from the EU will be felt on both sides of the Channel. The UK has long been a prolific productor of creative and innovative television and cinema for its domestic and export market, and acted as the main hub for audiovisual media services in the EU – two out of five TV channels in the UK primarily target another EU market. Many of these channels will also move across the channel to continue catering to the European market.
As with all things Brexit, exporting and importing audiovisual services between the UK and EU has been made harder and will detriment most parties. While the gaps will be filled, companies and organisations shuffled into various jurisdictions, the sector will stabilise and the future of the industry will become clear in the coming years, however, joint ventures with the UK will be made more difficult thanks to ending the freedom of movement of people and goods, and make distribution more complicated. Some projects that would have stood a chance of success will never come to fruition, while others that might have been overlooked will now see the light of day. There will be winners and losers, the internet will likely provide fudged solutions in the short term until legislation catches up with the reality of media consumption in the UK and EU. In the meantime, it is another tragedy of Brexit that sharing our creative products is just that much harder.
Related Posts
Brexit is a fraught issue beset by ongoing uncertainties. It seems no part of the UK’s international and domestic life has been left untouched, the self-inflicted blow to the UK’s hard power has come hand in hand with a depletion in its soft power in the form of its cultural exports – namely its audiovisual media services industry.
The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (“the Deal”) and Northern Ireland Protocol were finalised over Christmas of 2020 and came into force just a few days later, consists of three pillars – a Free Trade Agreement, a partnership on security and a horizontal agreement governance. When the deal came into force, the UK no longer enjoyed freedom of movement of people, goods and services.
The European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) has produced numerous reports looking at Brexit and the impact on the audiovisual sector, with contributions from the UK’s Department for Digital Culture, Media & Sport, British Film Institute and Ofcom as well as other European media and government organisations and stakeholders. Their research has been ongoing and will likely continue as the dust settles from Brexit.
Prior to 2021, the UK led Europe in its share of TV channels broadcasting inside the EU, a 2021 report from the EAO found that the UK made up 21% of the audiovisual market revenues in the EU28 in 2020. Since the enactment of the deal, the UK no longer enjoys freedom of reception and retransmission of UK-based channels. The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) is the main instrument to regulate broadcasting and video on-demand services in the EU is bound by the ‘country of origin’ principle, which means that EU countries are now able to restrict UK-based TV channels as they are now a third country, though the 22 EEA countries who are party to the ECTT (European Convention on Transfrontier Television) are obliged to allow for freedom of reception for UK-based services, this obligation is interpreted differently in each country’s domestic law.
Now that the UK is no longer bound under the AVMSD, they are no longer bound to the European Works quota in the UK, and EU countries are no longer bound to give the UK its share of those quotas on their domestic channels. This has further impacted the popularity and dissemination of UK creative works on EU channels. Ofcom has retained the quotas for domestic services but these are no longer include European works, nor is that secured by EU legislation. It also cannot do anything for the UK’s cultural exports into the EU.
This has translated into the UK dropping from the provision of 1230 television channels to the EU to 586, with channels aimed at the non-domestic market having dropped from 563 to 235. European providers are steadily filling that void, with the Netherlands and Spain’s channels growing in number and popularity. In turn, non-ECTT EU-based providers broadcasting in the UK must obtain a licence from Ofcom, the UK’s media regulator, and meet the UK’s broadcast regulations.
The UK’s participation in the Creative Europe programme, which promotes cross-border cooperation, platforms, networking and literary translation, development, distribution and access to audiovisual service and ensures transnational policy collaboration, came to an end in 2020. However, those projects already begun that ran past 1st January 2021 continued to receive funding, and some projects are open to UK applicants until 2027. Grants to the UK from this fund totalled €21.4m annually going to 91 companies and organisations and considered a key factor to their success, the UK Government has pledged to replace this funding but it will, as it has in replacing other EU funding streams, likely be significantly less. The UK has remained part of the Horizon Europe Programme, however, which has a strand to support “culture, creativity and inclusive society” and will enable cross-country cooperation and participation on certain projects.
UK-based media groups previously represented 27 of the top 100 audiovisual companies in the EU, as against 13 German and 13 French companies. The UK played host to a number of subsidiaries of major US media groups who used the UK as a gateway to Europe, and also produced Sky, BBC and ITV which were (relatively speaking) giants in the European market. It is assumed that the US media groups will move those subsidiaries into an EU country to conduct European operations, a further blow to the UK’s economic and cultural sectors.
The UK was a major player in the European audiovisual sector and its departure from the EU will be felt on both sides of the Channel. The UK has long been a prolific productor of creative and innovative television and cinema for its domestic and export market, and acted as the main hub for audiovisual media services in the EU – two out of five TV channels in the UK primarily target another EU market. Many of these channels will also move across the channel to continue catering to the European market.
As with all things Brexit, exporting and importing audiovisual services between the UK and EU has been made harder and will detriment most parties. While the gaps will be filled, companies and organisations shuffled into various jurisdictions, the sector will stabilise and the future of the industry will become clear in the coming years, however, joint ventures with the UK will be made more difficult thanks to ending the freedom of movement of people and goods, and make distribution more complicated. Some projects that would have stood a chance of success will never come to fruition, while others that might have been overlooked will now see the light of day. There will be winners and losers, the internet will likely provide fudged solutions in the short term until legislation catches up with the reality of media consumption in the UK and EU. In the meantime, it is another tragedy of Brexit that sharing our creative products is just that much harder.
