this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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Entertainment Sector Unites to Oppose European Law That Would Ban Geo-Blocking (www.hollywoodreporter.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/movies/t/694926

Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures join forces with StudioCanal, soccer's English Premier League and the MPA to oppose new legislation that would end geo-blocking of film and TV content across the European Union.

Via [email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Media companies have long argued that territorial exclusivity is key to their business models and that getting rid of it would jeopardize the creative and economic sustainability of the film and TV sectors in Europe.

Discovery, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, and Paramount joined forces with European giants Canal+, RTL, TF1, Sky, ProSiebenSat.1, Wildbunch and Leonine, representatives of major sports leagues, including England’s Premier League of soccer, Germany’s DFL and Italy’s Serie A, and distributors and exhibitor groups, including the MPA and European exhibitors organization UNIC, in a joint letter calling for the EU to reject the proposal and keep territorial exclusivity in place.

The companies argue the result of a geo-blocking ban would be a “significant reduction of choice in content, distribution, and access options as well as a surge in prices” for consumers.

But Europe is still largely a patchwork market of individual nation states or linguistic regions with small and mid-sized companies accounting for the vast majority of employment in the sector.

Licensing contracts for exclusive regional or linguistic rights — for a French film in Belgium, say, or an English Premier League match in Norway — form the basis of the industry, with pricing differing according to demand.

Companies use geo-blocking technology to prevent cross-border comparison shopping, which they fear will lead to price dumping, with the lowest-value territory dictating the licensing fee for the entire EU.

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