The inter-institutional negotiations meeting on Tuesday 17 April in Strasbourg on the draft SatCab regulation that aims to call time on geo-blocking for certain radio and television programmes, proved inconclusive.
As we previously announced (see EUROPE 12000), representatives from the European Parliament and Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU mainly stalled on the question of the country of origin principle. The draft proposal presented in September 2016 seeks to promote the cross-border provision of ancillary online services and facilitate the digital retransmission of TV and radio broadcasts from other member states (see EUROPE 11624).
The third trialogue on 17 April was shorter than planned. The European Commission proposed to submit new proposals on the most controversial questions, namely, the country of origin principle (article 2), retransmissions (article 3) and the direct injection (article 4a). According to one of our sources, however, Parliament only accepted this proposal on the country of origin principle.
Blockage on country of origin principle
In practice, differences between the co-legislators emerged yet again, particularly on the country of origin principle, which decides which place is applicable for satellite broadcasting where copyright must be paid.
Julia Reda (Greens/EFA, Germany) stated, “The European Parliament has shown that it is prepared to include in-house productions within the scope of the country of origin principle and is now awaiting a sign from the Council”.
The Council would like this principle restricted to news and current affairs programmes, as well as programmes that are entirely financed and controlled by broadcasting bodies, while Parliament would like it restricted to news and current affairs programmes alone.
The hand proffered to the Bulgarian Presidency with regard to the issue of direct injection, namely, the introduction of a revision clause, failed to achieve the desired effect either (see EUROPE 12000).
On Wednesday, the Commission renewed its commitment, “to continue the negotiations in a constructive spirit with the view of reaching an agreement on this file, delivering a good result that will bring added value to citizens and that will protect incentives and appropriate remuneration for the creative sector”.
The date of the next trialogue has not yet been decided. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)