The European Union’s new digital subscription portability rules are scheduled to go into effect 01 April, enabling EU citizens to access streaming content from their home subscriptions to digital services like Netflix or Amazon Prime while traveling across the EU, according Telecompaper. The new rules apply to for-pay services, although providers of free content may decide to opt in, and will no longer require streaming service providers to acquire licenses for territories their subscribers travel to, said the European Commission.
The Commission called the removal of these digital boundaries for consumers “yet another success of the Digital Single Market” following the abolition of roaming fees last year. The EU said the new rules are a direct response to changes in EU citizens’ digital subscription and viewing habits and estimates that up to 72 million Europeans will make use of cross-border portability by 2020.
Moreover, nearly 60 percent of young Europeans say that the ability to travel with their digital subscriptions is an important factor in choosing a subscription to an online service, said the European Commission. Portability should in turn help service providers increase their subscriber base and enable broadcasters and platforms to enhance the user experience, they added.
Still, despite these improvement, livestreams and online media libraries from broadcasters like Germany’s ARD and ZDF will remain largely accessible only in their countries of origin under the new portability rules, criticized Germany’s Federal Association of Consumer Protection (VZBV). Subscriptions to services from outside the EU are likewise unaffected by these changes, they added.
While the European Commission has proposed another ordinance to improve digital access to livestreams and media libraries in Europe, the European Parliament and the European Council have so far blocked these changes from being realized, criticized the VZBV. The film industries have expressed concerns that they will lose an important source of financing with loss of the ability to sell licensing rights in every country, they noted.
The VZBV called on the European Parliament and European Council to drop their blockade of these changes to improve consumers’ access to digital content across the union.
