March 13, 2017

As part of its Digital Single Market Strategy, the European Commission has proposed revising the regulatory framework that governs the operation of the Single Market for broadcasting to ensure that it reflects recent technological developments, such as the growth of on-demand services such as Netflix and video-sharing platforms such as YouTube.

The Scrutiny Committee says that the EU Internal Market for broadcasting is highly integrated: the AVMSD permits a broadcaster that is compliant in the Member State in which it is established to broadcast freely to the other 27 Member States. In combination with the UK’s strengths in the creative sector and favourable business ecosystem, this has enabled the UK to become the “overwhelming destination for international broadcasters seeking to access the EU market”. However, post-Brexit, routes to the EU market appear limited.

In contrast to the level of integration within the EU broadcasting market, broadcasting is one of the “least liberalised sectors in global trade”, the Committee says.

In the Committee’s view, clarity is needed on the impact to UK-based international broadcasters. The UK Government has said that the automatic fall-back to Single Market rules (the Council of Europe Convention on Transfrontier Television) excludes online services, does not include effective enforcement mechanisms, and does not include six Member States. The EU also excludes broadcasting from its Free Trade Agreements and World Trade Organisation commitments, because of the “cultural exception”. The sector therefore appears highly exposed, the Committee says. The Committee agreed to retain the file under scrutiny and request further information about the proposal itself, as well as the implications of UK non-participation in the AVMSD post-Brexit.

The Committee is asking the Government to clarify what impact the failure to secure a Free Trade Agreement will have on UK-based international broadcasters.

It also asks how many jobs depend, in the Government’s estimate, on the ability of UK-based international broadcasters to retain current levels of market access to the EU market. For a link to the report chapter, click here.