Thank you for giving the European Broadcasting Union the opportunity to express our views on the proposed Directive on collective management.

The activities of Public Service Media organisations cover television and radio broadcasting and increasingly cross‐media activities with programmes and interactive services offered on a multitude of different platforms. These platforms increasingly converge, connected TV or hybrid TV is a good example for this development.

In various areas, and in particular regarding music, Public Service Media organisations have always relied on collective rights management. Transparency and improved governance, which contributes to the efficient functioning of collective rights management organisations, is therefore essential.

Public Service Media organisations are mass users of music in their works; a major broadcaster may use up to 250,000 pieces of music in its programmes every week, for both online and offline use.  This is characteristic of a situation where, without collective management, efficient rights clearance would virtually be impossible.

One‐stop‐shop licensing of the world repertoire has been and remains essential for broadcasters. On the one hand as a hugely important cost‐ efficient licensing tool; on the other hand as a valuable means of ensuring that a culturally diverse array of music is used in television and radio programmes. 

We welcome the draft Directive’s recognition that the online services made available by radio and television broadcasters are effectively different from online music services such as iTunes, Deezer or Spotify, for which the proposed multi‐territorial licensing system has been designed. These services are destined to provide similar offers in several countries. They also offer access to individual music tracks which the consumer is free to choose as part of a retail‐ like service. By contrast, broadcasters essentially use music as an embedded part of their programmes which are offered both online and offline. 

This is why, indeed, we welcome Mrs Gallo’s proposal to exempt the broadcasters’ use of music embedded in their programmes for online services from the multi‐territorial licensing system; because it would create unnecessary burden and costs for radio and television broadcasters. This is also what the Commission found in its impact assessment.  

The broadcasting sector, i.e. public service and commercial radio and television broadcasters, believe that an exemption from the scope of title III of the directive, in Article 2, is the coherent way to do it and would be legally sound. We are proposing an exemption which reflects the reality of the broadcasters’ activities and which would be future‐proof.  

The exemption would not only cover catch‐up services but also additional content which enriches and complements traditional TV and radio programmes. Examples are: interactive web series, online media literacy tutorials, bonus‐material and archive footage, or online programmes for children and teenagers.  

Furthermore, in several Member States, there are already efficient licensing solutions in place which hugely facilitate the licensing needs of broadcasters and increase the revenues of rights holders, such as extended collecting licensing systems. Collecting societies and broadcasters mutually support these solutions where they exist because they have demonstrated their usefulness. Other Member States may wish to enable such licensing solutions in the future. We strongly welcome the fact that Mrs Gallo’s working document asks to ensure that the Directive does not intend to modify or restrict these successful national licensing solutions. 

To summarise:

• Collective rights management is crucial for broadcasters. Rules on transparency and good governance are therefore welcome as they will increase efficiency and trust.  
• The one‐stop‐shop licensing model meets the broadcasters’ need for efficient rights clearance and enables the continued use of a culturally diverse repertoire.  
• Licenses for online services that are related to the broadcasters offline services should be exempted from the scope of title III;
• Extended collective licensing and other licensing solutions at national level should remain unaffected.