ROBUST ECOSYSTEM – FAIR COMPETITION – STRONG IP
ACT represents Europe’s audiovisual champions — responsible, accountable, and invested in Europe — offering a model for how media can contribute to Europe’s culture, democracy, and economy. We call for European solutions that address the erosion of pluralism, the loss of investment, and the weakening of IP rights, enabling our sector to survive and thrive amid the radical changes brought by digital technologies.
1. Fostering a Robust and Competitive European Audiovisual Industry
Our goal is to create a legal and regulatory framework that ensures the long-term stability, financial sustainability and growth of the European audiovisual landscape. This framework should be dynamic, reflecting the new media environment and enabling our industry to remain a foundation for the AV ecosystem — creating high-quality jobs and paying taxes in the EU. We seek a framework that protects diverse business models, both advertising- and subscription-funded, so that our members can continue making the substantial investments required to deliver high-quality content. This pillar underscores our role as an economic driver and a cornerstone of the European creative economy, supporting European sovereignty and champion status.
2. Championing Pluralism and Innovation Through Fair Competition
We advocate for policies that enable a fair and modern competitive environment. This includes ensuring European audiovisual rules are fit for purpose and updating competition policy to support a thriving and accountable media landscape that underpins democracy. Such a framework empowers our members to maintain their long-term investment in diverse, high-quality professional journalism and entertainment. We also seek to ensure our services and content can still be found by European audiences — particularly when mediated by tech gatekeepers — and on fair terms. This includes fair access to data, enabling a reasonable return on investment in content and allowing us to uphold our duty of care to the public and those who create our programmes.
3. Securing Creativity and Investment Through Strong IP Rights
To protect and promote the commercial drivers of our industry, we must preserve and better enforce intellectual-property rights and contractual freedom. These principles safeguard not only business but also the future of European culture and entertainment. Strong IP protection ensures our members can defend their investment in, and curation of, high-quality content for Europeans. This includes ensuring AI companies respect rights holders’ control over how their content is used and that rights holders share fairly in the value created by AI. Such protection allows us to continue producing high-quality, diverse entertainment for all and safeguards creativity and the cultural sector’s future prosperity.