The story of jurisdiction over non-EU TV channels
The European Union had adopted new legislation changing the criteria on which basis it is to be decided which Member State has jurisdiction over a broadcast channel. Under the new rules, non-EU TV channels would no longer come under the jurisdiction of the EU Member State from which satellite capacity was used, but under the jurisdiction of the Member State where the satellite uplink took place.
A non-EU broadcaster turned to X-Media Strategies because it had 3 uplinks of their channel in 3 different EU Member States, to 3 different satellite platforms. The broadcaster sought the assistance of X-Media strategies in developing a strategy to bring their channel under the jurisdiction of the country of their most favoured regulator.
Intervention by X-Media Strategies at different levels led to the result requested by the broadcaster, as the European Commission decided to clarify the new rules: The Member State to assume jurisdiction over a channel from a non-EU broadcaster should be the Member State of the oldest uplink to a satellite platform which primarily targets EU States.
The story of a legislative proposal that would have had a profound impact on the film and TV production business
In several EU Member States, film and TV producers are deemed to have all the rights in their film or TV productions. The European Parliament discussed a proposal to amend this, by making it possible for this legal fiction to be overruled (in cases where persons who contribute to a film or TV production would decide to jointly exercise their rights through a collective rights management organisation). As a result, the process of rights clearance in the value chain would have become less transparent and less efficient. It would also have made it difficult for film producers to finance their productions.
X-Media Strategies assisted the parties in the value chain in creating an ad hoc coalition. This coalition managed to explain the profound consequences of the proposed amendment. As a consequence, the amendment was not adopted and the Clients were more than happy with this result.
The story of the act of retransmission that was no more
In many cases, distribution platforms do no longer retransmit the free-to-air signals of radio and TV channels; the signals are delivered directly to the headends of the distribution platforms. As a consequence, there are no longer two relevant acts of communication to the public under copyright law, but only one.
X-Media Strategies advised broadcasters and operators of distribution platforms that for this reason, there was no longer a need to clear the rights for both the initial transmission and for the retransmission. Thus, rights clearance became more efficient (less transactions needed) and budgets which had previously been allocated to the clearance of retransmission rights could now be re-allocated to new types of use (such as ‘Catch up’ and multiscreen delivery services). The Clients were very happy with this result.
The story of convincing a country that it should ratify the European Convention on Transfrontier Television
X-Media Strategies was commissioned to coordinate a long-term joint EU – Council of Europe project in an Eastern European country, in order to promote the adoption by that country of European standards in the media field. One of the deliverables was that the country would ratify the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. This goal was achieved within 4 Months after the start of the project. The partners were very much satisfied with this result at such an early stage in the project.