TV Quotas Under the AVMS Directive After Brexit

The European Union (EU)’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive 2010/13/EU (AVMS Directive) requires broadcasters to seek to ensure that a majority of transmission time is dedicated to ‘European works’. The definition of eligible works for this cultural quota includes states party to the European Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT), of which twenty EU Member States and the UK are among the members. EU broadcasters can hence satisfy the quota with UK works. It appears, however, that post-Brexit the European Commission contemplates an attempt to exclude UK works from the definition, so as to enlarge the share of the market available to EU Member State producers. This article examines that ambition against the obligations of the EU and its Member States under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the ECTT, concluding that several obstacles stand in the way of achieving that policy goal. AVMS, ‘Television without Frontiers’, European works, broadcasting quota, Brexit, GATS