The Essential Issue Is Getting The TV Signals To Viewers

Michael Hedges January 28, 2019 - Follow on Twitter

News media has been talking about Brexit - the UK leaving the European Union - for what seems forever. Much has been written and spoken on this subject. Much of that, foreign and domestic, has been fake news, particularly ahead of the infamous referendum. It is the peril of the post-truth age. Brexit was founded on fear, loathing and a large dose of misinformation. Reality as the deadline looms large is guaranteed of disruption.

Television broadcasters marketing their services across the European Union (EU) have long taken advantage of access through, first, the Television Without Borders directive, and then the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) directive. These two broad agreements allowed television services licensed in one EU Member State access to all other EU Member States under the rules of the country of origin. They have worked reasonably well; more than 500 broadcasters took licenses in the UK under Office for Communication (Ofcom) rules.

Broadcasters - and every other enterprise operating in the UK - have legions of lawyers attempting to head off the disruption. The obvious solution for those wanting or needing to continue selling their services across the EU is obtaining television licenses under an EU jurisdiction. London is a major global television production hub and those operations would not necessarily traverse the continent, at least in the short term.

This is no longer hypothetical. Consistent with every other French government in a generation or more, President Emmanuel Macron reinforced the adamant position on “cultural exceptions” in EU trade agreements. When (or if) the UK leaves the EU television broadcasters will lose free access to European markets.

“France has consistently defended the exclusion of audiovisual services from free trade agreements,” President Macron wrote in a letter to the French Coalition for Cultural Diversity (Coalition française pour la diversité culturelle) (January 2). “This is an essential issue, which concerns the protection of cultural diversity. Our country has made it a major point in every trade negotiation. It has thus obtained, in all the free trade agreements the EU has concluded, the exclusion of audiovisual services.”

Turner Broadcasting Systems and NBCUniversal were granted licenses by Bavarian media regulator BLM in December, a dozen pay-TV channels between them, including TCM and TNT (Turner) and Syfy and E! Entertainment (NBC). “For (Bavaria), the new licenses mean a further strengthening of our location; for the companies, it means legal certainty,” said BLM president Siegfried Schneider, in a statement (December 14). Administrative headquarters of both German subsidiaries has been established in Munich. Both companies indicated they will hire local staff.

A week later Discovery Communications indicated its entire European television headquarters to the Netherlands. Sony also announced its TV licensing will move to the Netherlands. Sports streaming platform DAZN applied for licenses from the Berlin-Brandenburg (Germany) media regulator MABB. All these broadcasters intend to continue production operations in the UK, the moves largely being administrative. UK media watchers, clutching pearls, worry about a slow erosion of London’s position as a global TV hub as new licenses normally require significant, if not substantial, investments.

Those anxieties rose measureably when a brief conversation at the World Economic Forum (WEF) was reported by the Guardian (January 24) between Belgian prime minister Charles Michel and UK public broadcaster BBC director general Tony Hall. The subject was the possibility of relocating BBC Studios, the BBC’s commercial international subsidiary, to Belgium. BBC Studios produces BBC World, BBC Entertainment, BBC First and BBC Earth. “We will be keeping the situation under close review to ensure that we can continue to best serve our audiences in any changed regulatory environment,” said the BBC Studios statement. UK media watchers intimidated moves to Ireland or the Netherlands are also possible. Relocations to France are highly unlikely due to regulations mandating French-language broadcasting.

See also...

• Hot Topics - EU Audiovisual Media Service Directive (AVMS)