Brexit also for British TV series and films, the EU plan

Brexit also applies to films and TV series. Acclaimed series such as “The crown” and “Downtown Abbey” are no longer ‘European’ and therefore should no longer be part of the share of at least 30% of old continent productions on online platforms. demand like Netflix or Amazon, set by EU Avms directives. This is the orientation of an internal EU document of 8 June viewed by the Guardian, according to which, after Brexit, the inclusion of British films and series in these quotas leads to a “disproportionate” amount of overseas programs on small European screens. “This disproportion risks undermining the achievement of the objective of promoting European works and cultural diversity”, explains the document, in which the European Commission is asked to launch a study on the risks that British production entails for “cultural diversity” European. According to European sources, the initiative could gain more momentum in January, when France takes over the EU presidency for six months. And countries like Spain, Greece, Italy and Austria will support it along this line. Very attentive to culture, France already goes beyond the EU directive and imposes a 60% of European production on on-demand platforms.At the moment, although Great Britain is now a ‘third country’, its production is qualified as European, definition which refers to the Television Convention of the Council of Europe to which London is a party. But the AVMS directive on audiovisual media will have to be revised in three years and that is when the exclusion of the British could come into force. The European move could have important consequences. The UK is currently Europe’s largest producer of films and TV programs, a cultural ‘soft power’ that brings in 1.4 billion pounds a year from foreign rights sales. The presale of these rights is often an important part of the financing needed for expensive productions, such as Downton Abbey. After the United States, Europe is the second largest market for the British television industry, with 490 million in revenues in 2019-20. It is easy to foresee that in addition to the “sausage war” and the clashes over fishing, there is now also a risk of a dispute over the TV series.