The European Coordination of Independent Producers (CEPI), representing independent audiovisual production companies in Europe, welcomes the European Commission’s proposals for the review of the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive published on 25th May. We believe the AVMS proposals represent a positive first step towards creating an environment which promotes a sustainable and healthy European audiovisual sector, benefits European consumers and strengthens cultural diversity.
CEPI supports the decision to maintain the country of origin principle which has been vital to the cross-border provision of audiovisual services. Moreover, the catalogue quotas, prominence requirements, commercial communication rules and increased role for regulators are a move in the right direction towards establishing a fair level playing field between new online and existing players.
Nevertheless, it is important to bear in mind that several issues remain. Namely, the application of the Directive to video-sharing platforms is not clear and should be improved.
We especially want to highlight the following aspects of the proposals: download here.