MPA Europe Chief On Hollywood Concerns As New EU Regime Takes Charge

Following recent European Union elections held in June that saw far-right parties made significant gains, Hollywood is making moves to ensure that the new EU regime doesn’t draft new legislation that would be detrimental for studios and streamers. 

“We are at a moment when [EU] policies are not set in stone yet,” said Stan McCoy, who is the Motion Picture Assn.’s chief for Europe, speaking at the Venice Film Festival.

“You have a new parliament, they are going through the process,” he added. “The industry always has a big job to do to educate Brussels about why the industry works the way it does.”

McCoy expanded on several key issues the MPA is preparing to lobby for in Brussels.

Manage risk by negotiating diverse production arrangements

“There are some people out there in the [EU] industry that advocate that there should be rules where the producer always retains the IP. Basically our position is: Don’t make that a rule across the board because that’s going to shrink the possibility of making deals,” said McCoy. “We are advocating to leave the production partners the freedom to reach agreements regarding IP on projects in a way that reflects their appetite for risk. We are concerned about maintaining the rational relationship between risk and reward in dealmaking.“

Support exclusive territorial licensing

“For years, the entire EU audiovisual system has been totally unified in saying: ‘We understand and embrace the single market,’” said McCoy. “But the ‘single market’ should not mean that you no longer get to sell rights territory by territory. That’s going to grossly interfere with the business model of the industry.” Therefore, the EU should preserve exclusive territorial licensing. This looks to be a major matter going forward, according to McCoy who said there are now a lot of single-market purists in Brussels.

Enable competitive offerings adapted to consumer needs and preferences

Consumer advocates in Europe are pushing for regulations that would allow streaming service customers to scam a bit, according to McCoy. “You don’t want to create a world where you wind up facilitating people who sign up for a streaming service, watch everything they want for two weeks, and then cancel, saying: ‘I didn’t like it,’ and get all their money back,” said McCoy. “We want to be sure that consumer protection regulations are rational.”

Protect content creation and support legal services

This is just a continuation of the MPA’s ongoing antipiracy battle. “We are talking about copyright protection and enforcement. That’s no surprise. These are things that are bread and butter for us,” said McCoy 

Maintain a stable and predictable copyright system

The MPA said the EU should “maintain stability of its recently updated copyright law that includes use of artificial intelligence.” But rules on the use of AI are instead likely to be revised.

No to network fees

Telecom operators in different countries have been pushing for years for a fee that content providers should pay to the networks. They claim that they are using the networks to distribute their product. “But in fact, they [the telecoms] are actually using the content to sell their product,” said McCoy.

Maintain an inclusive definition of European works

The MPA want to maintaining the EU’s existing definition of “European works,” which currently includes U.K. works. But there are moves underway to say U.K. works don’t count as European. “This would damage the production ecosystem, reducing crucial opportunities for international co-productions, which provides a healthy framework for co-productions,” the MPA, in a statement, stated.  

Enforce principles of country of origin, proportionality and non-discrimination

This is about financial contributions that, under an EU directive called AVMS, are required of streamers and calculated as a percentage of their turnover. These requirements differ in terms of percentage across Europe. “What we are saying is: if countries chose to implement those rules, they should make sure that the percentage obligation is not excessively high,” said McCoy. “We are trying to discourage member states from going too far in imposing those kinds of financial contributions.”