SAA - Society of Audiovisual Authors

The new Cultural Compass should put the EU values and fundamental rights, including copyright, at the heart of its guiding principles for cultural policies, supporting programmes and other EUs priorities. The new strategy should encompass the audiovisual sector, which heavily depends on the unique creativity of film and TV writers and directors, and address their legal and economic situation, which varies widely from one country to another. Due to this fragmentation, audiovisual authors are not remunerated for the exploitation of their works on all media in all European countries. CMOs are a key part of the audiovisual ecosystem but they cannot always bridge the gaps when legislation is not aligned.

Until the COVID-19 outbreak, the audiovisual sector contributed to the European economy with a growth rate of 11% between 2013-2019. Due to the pandemic, the European cultural and creative economy lost almost a third of its activity in 2020. CMOs proved to be indispensable for culture in general and for creators in particular (EY 2021), adapting their structure, reducing their fixed costs, accelerating the distribution of royalties and mobilising the social funds (SAA, 2020).

The Cultural Compass should address todays challenges:

• Fix streaming loopholes and champion statutory rights to remuneration for audiovisual authors
• Defend authorisation, remuneration and transparency for the use of copyright-protected works by AI companies
• Maintain and strengthen the Audiovisual Media Services Directive as a landmark legislation
• Protect European cultural and audiovisual goods and services in trade negotiations Foster equality, diversity and fairness in the cultural and audiovisual sectors.

CISAC (2024) predicts that by 2028, AI-generated complete audiovisual outputs will be worth around 48bn. Audiovisual output generation for social media and TV will account for the lion's share of the market. The widespread use of Gen AI tools throughout the production process of audiovisual works could put 21% of creators' revenues at risk by 2028. Gen AI providers' revenues in the audiovisual sector could almost double every year, reaching around 5.3bn in 2028. The AI Act and its Code of Practice are far from solving the problem of all the copyrighted works already being unlawfully scrapped and used for training, and although many CMOs have reached out, AI model developers have shown no interest in entering into licensing negotiations.

Many audiovisual authors are self-employed, and their working conditions often exclude them from social security protection and require them to have a second job. As a result, they struggle to find time for their creative activities. In 2023, the OMC group concluded that diversity of working practices should not be an obstacle to obtaining rights. An EU legal status for artists and creative professionals would be a way to recognise atypical work and give access to revenues, funding and benefits. It would also help to reduce social and economic disadvantages. The OMC group recommended existing EU cultural statistics to include income/remuneration. CMOs were mentioned as sources of accurate and reliable data that could inform evidence-based policymaking.

The SAA would be happy to participate in a regular structured dialogue with the EC that would address the cultural and audiovisual sectors challenges and ways forward.

Read all stakeholders' contributions to the public consultation here.

The SAA participated in a targeted stakeholders' survey on the new Culture Compass, carried out by Panteia on behalf of the EU Commission.