On 24 August, the European Commission has launched a public consultation on the "Cable and Satellite" Directive, which is part of the reform policy of European copyright law. All potentially involved actors are invited to take part in this consultation, such as Member State authorities, broadcasters, authors, audiovisual producers, collective management organisations, satellite and cable operators, Internet access providers or consumers.
The public consultation is open until 16 November 2015. As a reminder, for satellite-related services, the country of origin principle applies to service providers. For cable retransmission, operators who want to broadcast from another Member State have to obtain the rights through collective management organisations or broadcasters. In a context of rapidly changing and convergent landscape, the revision of the directive aged over 20 years now proves to be necessary.
In parallel, a public consultation on the AVMS Directive was launched on 6 July and is underway until 30 September 2015. Its main objective is to search the instruments available to improve the current audiovisual law. The consultation focuses on the roles and responsibilities of market players such as broadcasters, on-demand service providers, Internet service providers, telecommunications operators etc.
The main topics which will be subject to analysis following this public consultation are the protection of minors, promotion of European works, regulation of advertising in digital context. This public consultation is part of the assessment of the AVMSD under the new Regulatory Fitness (REFIT) strengthened evaluation process, under the recently adopted Commission's Better Regulation Framework.
These two consultations are part of the Digital Single Market Strategy which was adopted on 6 May 2015 and is built on three pillars: (1) better access for consumers and businesses to digital goods and services across Europe; (2) creating the right conditions and a level playing field for digital networks and innovative services to flourish; (3) maximising the growth potential of the digital economy.
The reform process had started in 2013 with the Green Paper "Preparing for a Fully Converged Audiovisual World: Growth, Creation and Value", which invited stakeholders to share their views on the changing media landscape and borderless internet in particular on market conditions, interoperability and infrastructure, and implications for EU rules. The consultation had gathered more than 236 (public) replies; a summary of the replies to the Public Consultation has been published by the European Commission on 12 September 2014.