Final meeting of the dialogue on access to and availability of audiovisual content across the EU

The Commission welcomed the contributions submitted by stakeholders’ organisations, while acknowledging the broad scope and lack of concreteness of some of the contributions. The Commission therefore proposed to focus the discussion on a limited number of proposals, taking into account their relevance and European added value. 

Building on these proposals, the Commission discussed the way forward with participants and identified areas for stakeholders’ actions: first, to strengthen collaboration across the value chain in order to facilitate the online exploitation of films; second, to develop innovative practices on cross border access to catalogue films to increase their cultural value and exposure to EU citizens; and finally to improve data collection on publicly funded films. The Commission urged participants to come up with concrete actions in these fields, which could be financially supported through upcoming calls under the MEDIA strand of Creative Europe.

The dialogue also confirmed that availability of audiovisual content should be assessed in a wider market context, taking account of the demand for and the discoverability of such content. The Commission’s upcoming report on media markets, the Media Outlook, will provide insights not only into the availability, but also into audience behaviour and preferences, including discoverability. This can help to steer future reflections on how to boost the overall competitiveness of EU films, series and documentaries outside domestic markets.

A summary report from the final meeting will be published shortly.

Background

As announced in the Media and Audiovisual Action Plan, the Commission organised several meetings with EU-level associations representing the different voices of the AV sector, as well as consumers, to discuss, and agree on concrete steps to foster the access to and availability of audiovisual content across the EU. The Commission invited all participants to identify concrete actions and commit to implement them. While the dialogue initially focused on all audio-visual works, the proposals received revolved mainly around the circulation of EU films.