EU sues Ireland for failure to implement television and film standards

Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones in a scene from Normal People.

The EU is suing Ireland for failure to implement the revised directive for audiovisual media services, which is aimed at growing local production of film and television stories.

The European Commission said it had referred five countries, including Ireland, to the EU Court of Justice over their failure to apply the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), which was passed in Ireland at the end of 2018 and was supposed to be implemented by September 2020.

The Directive sets EU-wide media content standards for all audiovisual media, and includes a 30% quota of European productions on video-on-demand services like Netflix.

This would boost local production firms that make award winning screen stories such as Normal People and the animated Oscar-nominated movie Wolfwalkers.

The commission said it had asked for financial sanctions against the countries as they have not enforced the Directive by the September 2020 deadline.

The other countries that are facing the financial penalties are Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

The initiative is part of the Irish Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill.

The Government approved the publication of the Bill on in January, then passed it to the Seanad where it is still up for consideration for enactment.

Those in the Irish production industry are also looking for a 3% content levy on services like Netflix to be part of the Bill, which would go to Irish production companies.

“With the investment delivered from a content levy these creators can bring their success to Irish produced stories made for global audiences, return lucrative creative IP and royalties to our screen industries and help to provide opportunities for the next generation of creators to be able to stay and grow sustainable careers from Ireland,” recently commented Sarah Glennane, Screen Composers Guild of Ireland CEO.

A group made up of RTÉ, TG4, Screen Producers Ireland, Screen Directors Guild of Ireland, Writers Guild of Ireland, Screen Composers Guild of Ireland and Animation Ireland estimate that such a levy would deliver €25m a year to the Irish film and television sector, at no cost to the Irish taxpayer.

Additional reporting Reuters