(Brussels, 14 September 2016): Cable Europe, the Association representing broadband cable operators, has expressed disappointment at opportunities missed in the proposals for updating copyright legislation, published by the European Commission today.
The draft Regulation dealing with the transmission and retransmission of television broadcasts is designed to augment the existing 1993 Satellite and Cable Directive, embracing new types of content distribution.
Cable operators are at the forefront of innovation, offering ever more flexiblility in how and where its customers consume content. Responding to our customers’ demand, we have the technology to offer viewing from a cable subscription outside the home and abroad. The viewer appetite for new types of consumption such as catch-up TV (watching a programme after broadcast) and restart TV (restarting a programme already in progress) is increasing, and our innovative technologies have kept pace with expectation.
Yet in updating copyright legislation to accommodate new technologies and behaviours, the Commission has failed to improve the legal framework for cable customers. It has ignored situations when cable operators clear rights needed to offer these new services. The current licensing regime for cable retransmission - mandatory collective licensing in the country where the cable operates - works effectively for the services of 1993; the regime should simply be updated to embrace today’s reality.
Said Caroline van Weede, Managing Director of Cable Europe “It’s disappointing that in the context of regulatory change designed to stimulate innovation and investment, the Commission has failed to put in place at the legal basis for simple licensing mechanisms. This is needed for us to shorten the time to market when offering our 64 million European cable customers the viewing options they want.”
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For more information please contact:
Virginia Lee
Director of Communications
Cable Europe
virginia.lee@cable-europe.eu
+32 2 556 21 02
About Cable Europe
Cable Europe is the trade association that connects leading broadband cable TV operators and their national trade associations throughout the European Union. The regulatory and public policy activities of Cable Europe aim to promote and defend the industry’s policies and business interests at European and international level. The European cable industry provides high speed broadband internet, TV services, and telephony into the home of 64.5 million customers the European Union.
www.cable-europe.eu
