ADEF, Eurocinema, Europa Distribution and Europa International welcome the European Parliament’s decision to keep the audiovisual sector outside the scope of the Geo-blocking Regulation
Eurocinema, Europa Distribution, Europa International and ADEF, representing film production, distribution and international sales, all welcome the plenary votes which took place on 13 December 2023, regarding the IMCO report proposing the revision of the 2018 regulation on geo-blocking in the digital single market (2023/2019(INI)). These votes overall represented a positive stance from the European Parliament to keep the exemption for the audiovisual sector in the Geo-blocking Regulation.
The amendments brought were crucial to mitigate the damaging effects of the original IMCO report which contained misconceptions about the audiovisual industry. In light of this difficult base, the amendments approved yesterday represent an important step to ensure the audiovisual sector can continue to rely on geo-blocking as a tool to ensure territoriality and cultural diversity across the European Union.
We welcome particularly the critical element of voting down the request to revisit the inclusion of film/AV services in a future review of the EU Geoblocking Regulation. This cross-party support from MEPS from all over the European Union displays clearly a lack of political support for the future inclusion of the AV sector in the Geo-blocking Regulation. Moreover, this clear refusal from the European Parliament shows an understanding of the AV sector ecosystem and the importance of territorial exclusivity to sustain it. With this vote the European Parliament signals plainly that it sees geo-blocking as an important tool for the industry, for audiovisual works and for audiences.
We thank all of the MEPs who voted yesterday to protect the AV sector and listened to the call of more than 700 organisations to keep territorial exclusivity and protect cultural diversity. We hope that the attitude demonstrated by the votes yesterday will be present again during the future revision of the Geo-blocking Regulation in order to protect the film sector, its workforce and its audiences.