With the breaking news of the UK reaching an agreement with the EU on the transition period of the Brexit – set up to begin after Brexit day, 29 March 2019 – we might be able to shed some light on the mystery of how the future is going to unwrap for all the key business players in the audiovisual market. Meanwhile, risks of disinvestment, participation in the EU’s single market, or possible readjustments in UK’s immigration policies, are still driving many companies to move parts of their activities to bases within the European Union, following the line of the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products, which is in the process to move its headquarters from London to Amsterdam. Meanwhile, in the negotiations, diverse political statements are being brought to the table, which has undoubtedly led to emerging political tensions.
The highly dynamic and competitive presence of the British economy worldwide in important sectors such as the creative and technological industries, telecommunications or tourism, has underlined an everyday more urgent necessity, on the side of all those business and organizations involved, to retain free movement of people. This would help to protect one of the key aspect of their development: the access to talent.
In this context, Brexit casts a large shadow on all these industries due to the uncertainty of the nature of the future regulatory environment. At the same time, however, it might also open up new doors to opportunities for beneficial reforms. In any case, the need for reliable data and for more clarity on these issues has become essential to businesses in the creative environment in order to prepare for new challenges.
The creative industry of UK is unquestionably one of the most successful in Europe, being the home to countless directors, producers, creators, and world-leading platforms and broadcasters. As a distinctive and growing sector, it employs around 3 million people (9.3% of the UK total) and it contributes 99.66 billion euros to the UK’s economy in 2015, touching thus all aspects of British cultural and business life. For this reason, the British government, prior to starting any decisional process, is analyzing the possibilities and risks which will have to be mitigated after March 2019, especially in three core areas where there is a strong concern: issues related to the workforce, potential loss of direct EU funding, loss of exports and, as mentioned above, the future regulatory environment.
Concerns have been manifested at this juncture regarding some specific areas: the future of existing Intellectual Property (IP) provisions, among which EU initiatives like the Country of Origin principle, the Unregistered Community Design Right, and Artists’ Release Rights, as well as the much broader obligations of copyright law. Considering that several aspects of UK IP law derive from EU directives, these areas could be problematic if the current EU legislation is not fully transposed into domestic law before the Brexit takes place. On the brighter side, the UK could potentially benefit from new opportunities that would emerge from a greater policy autonomy for its government and Ofcom (the government regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom), beyond the directions of the EU’s Audio-Visual Media Services (AVMS).
For the film, TV, VFX and animation sectors, these challenges have translated into the core decision: whether the UK should still fully participate in the EU single market through the European Economic Area, or if it decides to become a “third country” and focus its relationship with the EU on a free trade agreement or under the legislation of WTO. In this sense, and with the premise of facilitating the movement of talent, the Creative Industries Federation stated in their January Global Trade Report the need for ensuring the continuity of a mutually beneficial trade and the reduction of bureaucratic processes and costs when crossing the EU border for temporary shootings.
Likewise, the Federation’s Global Talent urged to ensure the best access to audiovisual workers from around the world inside the British territory. Besides, the UK workers should be able to move easily inside the EU, both for permanent and temporary projects. The audiovisual and media services (AVMS), on their side, have outlined the importance of securing an agreement with the EU on reciprocal trade which enables an easy access in both directions for audiovisual services. Lastly, concerning the copyright and circulation laws of audiovisual materials, the call is to maintain the cooperation with the EU Intellectual Property Office in order to ensure that rights are enforced across Europe.
These are just some of the premises which are still being negotiated between UK and EU, but briefly, the details of the agreement that was reached on the 19th of March will reveal more information on these big questions. In any case, on this and other issues related to the audiovisual industry, MIA will continue to follow closely the evolution of the situation, always taking an interest on the internationalization of the market, which provides a platform for discussion and focus, like the panel on BBC and the new challenges for the television market held last year with the participation of Craig Holleworth, BBC head of business and Ben Donald, BBC Worldwide executive producer.
(To be continued…)
