Linear TV and radio services are increasingly being consumed via the internet. Technical developments allowing the on-demand consumption of audio and audio-visual content on different user devices have also changed viewer habits resulting in linear TV content that can also be viewed at times chosen by the users themselves via catch-up or instant restart services.
The EU is in the process of working out how the 1993 EU Cable and Satellite Directive ought to be adapted to the modern digital world. While the EU’s proposals will not abolish territorial licensing of TV and radio content in favour of a single pan-European license, the EU will re-consider how the country-of-origin principle and the mandatory collective rights management of the cable-retransmission rights established by the existing EU legal regime can be expanded to new TV and radio retransmission technologies such as IPTV and WebTV.
This new regulation will affect creators and producers of audio-visual content intended for distribution via linear services and channels, traditional TV and radio networks, as well as all distributors of TV and radio programmes and channels (including cable, satellite, IPTV and OTT network and services operators) with operations in the European Union.