The Society of Audiovisual Authors (SAA) congratulates Poland on the implementation of the 2019 Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market and the Directive on Retransmission. After a long uphill battle, a historic milestone has finally been reached.

The ‘SatCab II’ Directive (EU) 2019/789, on copyright and related rights applicable to certain online transmissions of broadcasting organisations and retransmissions of television and radio programmes expanded the scope of the first Directive 93/83/EEC. It regulated retransmissions by other means than cable, direct injection and domestic retransmissions. What is the outcome of the implementation in the 24 Member States that have transposed the Directive so far?

On 1 January Sweden took over the Presidency of the Council of the EU. Despite being one of the largest countries with one of the lowest populations per square kilometer in all of Europe, it is the home to Greta Thunberg, Alfred Nobel, Ingmar Bergman, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, ABBA and many more. I talked to Mattias Åkerlind, CEO of Copyswede, from a cold Stockholm.

The Czech Republic, known for its top-ranking female tennis players, the world’s first robot, and it’s 2,000 castles, is since 1 July holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU. I had a talk with Jan Barták, working for our Czech member DILIA about their work and expectations about the Presidency.

On 1st July, Finland takes over the Presidency of the Council of the EU. Finland is the number one happiest country in the world, has 3 million saunas (more than they have cars) and Finns are the biggest coffee drinkers in the world (12kg per person per year). Kopiosto, the Finnish copyright organisation, has actively been promoting creative works for more than 40 years, and joined the SAA as a member in 2010.

For the SAA’s small team, working in the European House of Authors in Brussels, 2018 can be summed up in three words: the Copyright Directive.

On 13 December 2018, the Council and the European Parliament reached a political agreement on the Broadcasting and Retransmissions Directive. This is a milestone for audiovisual authors to continue receiving royalties for the exploitation of their works included in TV programmes’ packages distributed all around Europe, whatever the technology used.

For the EU Negotiators to Reach Agreement on the Broadcasting and Retransmissions Instrument

The European grouping of Authors’ Societies (GESAC) and SAA organised a lunch-briefing, hosted by MEP Virginie Rozière (S&D) and Bogdan Brunon Wenta (EPP) to discuss TV programme retransmission and direct injection.

A wide cross-section of the European creative community hopes and expects the European institutions to agree on a meaningful solution to the very real and growing problem associated with Direct Injection (DI). We have been disappointed by the Council’s decision so far not to address the problem.

Drafting the eighth activity report of the organisation for our General Assembly meeting on 27 March was harder work than in previous years. For the last two years, due to the legislative agenda of the European Commission in our fields of interest, the level of activity has been intense and in 2017 it reached a peak.