Expert Survey Shows Direct Injection as the Principal Form of Broadcasting in Europe

AGICOA and SAA today welcomed the Ampere Analysis economic survey of channel distribution in the EU, which confirms that broadcast signals, whether domestic or cross-border, are overwhelmingly transmitted to retransmission platforms such as cable using a method known as Direct Injection.

Key findings of the survey are:

  1. Direct Injection is the most popular broadcasting method in Europe with 78% of channels delivered to TV platforms generally and 87% to pay TV platforms
  2. 79% of all cross border retransmissions are via Direct Injection.

Direct Injection is now close to completely replacing over-the-air transmissions.

The survey, commissioned by AGICOA and SAA, introduces a factual baseline to Direct Injection and de-mystifies the issue. The research should help inform decisions as European lawmakers consider options to modernize the 1993 EU Satellite and Cable Directive’s retransmission regime.

Courts have called into question the qualification of ‘retransmission’ for channels transmitted to cable operators via Direct Injection. Some broadcasters and cable operators are using this as a pretext to reduce or eliminate their payments to right holders. However, as the Ampere Analysis survey shows, the economics remain the same and the European cable industry has said that their members earned almost €11 billion in 2015 from the audiovisual services they offer.

AGICOA and SAA call on policymakers to take the necessary steps to stop the gradual erosion of the €250 million1 paid annually to audiovisual authors and producers (less than 2.5% of the cable operators’ stated revenues) and to re-establish legal certainty if the planned Broadcasting Regulation goes forward.

1 From AGICOA and SAA 2016 collection figures