From radio to cinema, PSM are vital to Europe’s cultural diversity

Geneva 21 May 2013 — In the coming weeks, the European Union (EU) will set important parameters to transatlantic trade negotiations. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) stresses that the inclusion of audiovisual services in the negotiations would harm the European audiovisual industry and dent European cultural diversity.

“The audiovisual industry should be explicitly excluded from the European Union’s mandate to negotiate a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the United States,” said Ingrid Deltenre, Director General of the EBU.

The European audiovisual industry plays a significant part in the European economy and cultural landscape. It employs more than one million people directly. Cultural services are estimated to represent 4.5 per cent of the EU’s GDP and employ eight million people. In 2008, the EU film entertainment market (including TV programming) had an estimated worth of €17 billion.

EBU Members — public service media across Europe — are crucial to the European audiovisual sector. They support EU culture and its diversity in a much broader way: not only through TV, radio and multimedia programs,  but also by supporting its film industry. PSM are in fact the biggest investors and promoters of the European film industry.

EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre said: “We need the EU to defend the interests of the European audiovisual sector, and to ensure that the mandate given to the European Commission for negotiating on behalf of the EU takes those interests into account. The ability of the EU and Member States to support and stimulate the audiovisual sector needs to be maintained. This is all the more important as the sector is evolving in line with the technological and economic developments of the digital era.”

There is concern, shared across the European audiovisual and cultural value chain, that the current mandate proposed by the European Commission, is not explicit enough in excluding audiovisual services. Similar concerns have been voiced by Culture ministers from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

Opening full free trade with the US in the audiovisual field could have serious, adverse effects on the European audiovisual sector:
• US audiovisual industry has an in-built competitive advantage over the EU market: it operates in a bigger, more coherent and uniform (culturally and linguistically) market, leading to increased economies of scale and higher investment capabilities on average.
•  In 2010, the US exported $7.5 billion of audiovisual services to the EU; the corresponding amount in the other direction was $ 1.8 billion.
• Coupling this existing imbalance to the US audiovisual industry’s in-built competitive advantage over the EU market, it is clear that more trade liberalization would offer opportunities for the US to make further inroads into the European market, but not vice versa.
• By opening the audiovisual sector to free trade with the US, US companies may be entitled to EU and local support schemes, whilst being exempted from regulatory obligations.

ABOUT THE EUROPEAN BROADCASTING UNION (EBU)

The EBU is the world's foremost alliance of public service media organizations, with Members in 56 countries in Europe and beyond.

The EBU's mission is to defend the interests of public service media and to promote their indispensable contribution to modern society. It is the point of reference for industry knowledge and expertise.

The EBU operates Eurovision and Euroradio.

Eurovision is the media industry's premier distributor and producer of top quality live sport and news, as well as entertainment, culture and music content.

Euroradio enhances public service radio through the exchange of music, professional networking and the promotion of digital and hybrid radio – to ensure radio remains a key protagonist in a multimedia world.

The Eurovision/Euroradio satellite and fibre network is the largest and most reliable in the world directly plugged in to public service media everywhere.

web: www.ebu.ch - twitter: @EBU_Eurovision  @Euroradio_EBU