The industry hopes that the Commission maintains the status quo, where the audiovisual sector, including Video-on-Demand platforms (VOD) such as Netflix, Disney+, or Amazon Prime, offers different catalogues in different countries, based on licensing rights. The geo-blocking regulation, in force since 2018, forbids unjustified barriers to cross-border access to products or services across the EU single market. The regulation is focused on e-commerce platforms. However, copyright-protected content and the audiovisual sector are currently exempt from the rules.
That sounds very solvable. I’d imagine e.g. BBC, ARTE, etc. would form a joint holding organisation that buys pre-rights and uses them as distributors. Or perhaps they still individually buy the pre-rights, and while they technically will have permission to show them everywhere, since they don’t serve all the market, they don’t need exclusivity. Or perhaps they all decide to grab the opportunity and start to serve the entire EU market, making them players by themselves that are able to stand up to US counterparts.