On 28 March, the European Parliament approved the latest version of the Cab Sat Directive, i.e. the trilogue compromise agreement endorsed by the European institutions in December 2018.

This approval paves the way for the final adoption of the text within the coming weeks.

The EFADs welcome the adoption of the text, one of the initiatives of the Digital Single market aiming at fostering the access to TV programmes online all across Europe to the benefit of European audiences. In particular, the EFADs are reassured to see that the application of the country of origin principle has been limited to news, current affairs programmes and own productions fully financed by broadcasters. This therefore explicitly excludes cinematographic and audiovisual co-productions that are financed by many partners and distributed in different countries on the basis territorial exclusive rights.

“We are pleased that the European institutions have taken into account the specificities of the European audiovisual industry and the need to preserve territorial exclusivities and the capacity to sell and promote European works in different countries” commented Luis Chaby Vaz, President of the EFADs.