News

The Commission announced today that it wants to assess the economic and cultural consequences of the introduction of a system encouraging forms of multi-territory licensing of audiovisual works. The Commission expects cross-border on-demand audiovisual services to increase and launched a tender for study on multi-territory licensing of audiovisual works.



The study will analyse the legal framework and the prevailing practices for the licensing of audiovisual works for online distribution in the Member States and provide a detailed description of the structure of the online distribution sector and the relevant market in the EU Member States. Further the Commissions wants to carry out an assessment of the present and future main challenges for the development of a multiterritory distribution business model in the different Member States and possibly the Union as a whole in the mid term (5/10 years) taking into account the economic and cultural consequences that could be the results of the development of multi-territory distribution business models. However, the Commission does not stop there: the study will also contain possible policy options aiming at fostering the development of multi-territory distribution mechanisms and business models for online distribution of audiovisual works, including an analysis of the possibility of developing a system where right holders would be encouraged to grant, next to the main licence, a second multiterritory licence.



One could argue that the layout of the study already indicates that the Commission wants to promote multi-territory distribution mechanisms in the medium future. The questions is whether such an initiative would be limited to online distribution.



UNI-MEI will be following this study closely and consult with affiliates on their view of development of multi-territory distribution mechanisms.



For more information on the study go to: http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/info_centre/tenders/index_en.htm