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On 27 June 2024, the European Commission issued a report and staff working document on the implementation of Directive 2010/13/EU, also known as the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AMSD). In particular, the report analyses to what extent European works are being promoted by audiovisual media services.
The report not only covers the situation in the twenty-seven Member States, but also in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, nations belonging to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The report benefits from data facilitated by the European Audiovisual Observatory in the Council of Europe.
AMSD has been amended by Directive (EU) 2018/1808, which reinforces rules on the promotion of European works by audiovisual media services. Such rules can be divided into two categories: quota and prominence obligations, on the one side, and financial investment obligations, on the other side.
Article 13 of the amended AMSD obliges Member States to ensure that media service providers of on-demand audiovisual media services -video-on-demand (VOD) providers- under their jurisdiction secure at least a 30% share of European works in their catalogues and ensure prominence of those works.
On the other hand, EU Member States are expected to impose financial contributions to VOD providers in order to promote the production of European works, including via direct investment in content and/or contribution to national funds.
Traditional linear (broadcasting) service providers also have their obligations to promote European work under Articles 16 and 17 of AMSD. Broadcasters must reserve for European works a majority proportion of their transmission time, excluding the time allotted to news, sports events, games, advertising, teletext services and teleshopping.
They also need to reserve at least 10% of their transmission time or of their programming budget for independent European works.
Obliged service providers may not just be those established under the jurisdiction of a Member State, but this may also impose obligations on providers targeting audiences in their respective territory even if they are established in another Member State.
With regards to SVOD services, the report has found that their revenue coming from the EU increased from 6.7 billion euros in 2019 to 11.7 billion in 2021 (43% increase). The overall number of VOD services operational in the EU and EEA EFTA countries’ jurisdictions also grew from 1,030 in 2019 to 1,984 in 2021 (93% increase).
Member States reported that the average proportion of European works on VOD services varied between 63-64% in 2020-2021; this is is significantly higher than their 42-63% average corresponding to 2015-2019. However, the European Commission reports less optimistic data, namely, a 36% average share of European works on VOD services for 2021 and a 35% for 2023.
As for linear services, the total number of TV channels decreased slightly from 4,657 in 2019 in the EU -including at that time the UK- to 4,483 in 2021 (4% decrease). All Member States are actually requiring broadcasters to reserve a majority proportion of their transmission time for European works, with some Member States demanding a higher proportion either for public broadcasters or for all broadcasters. In fact, the average proportion of European works on linear services -68% in 2020 and 69% in 2021- was far above the mandatory majority proportion, according to Member States’ reports. This indicates a decrease in comparison to 2019 (72.6%). Moreover, the analysis in the study suggests that the share of European works (38%) is substantially below the share of European works reported on average by Member States.
Seven Member States have imposed financial contribution obligations for cross-border VOD service providers and two for cross-border linear service providers.
Finally, in terms of works created by independent producers, the average was 40.6% in 2020 and 41.4% in 2021, according to the data provided by the Member States. However, according to the European Commission, it was less than 3%, a dramatic difference between national data and reporting by Brussels.
By way of conclusion, we could argue that European works should be able to achieve success based on quality rather than on subsidies. Legal protection only proves relative efficiency; citizens’ choice is the ultimate proof of cultural interest.
Source of image: European Commission