How many subscribers Canal Pluson the move to Frankfurt, à Milan or in Barcelona, have not experienced this moment of digital frustration: at the end of a marathon day of meetings, once back in their hotel room, the encrypted channel's website refuses to accept the subscriber. The reason: his geographical position, obviously detected by the platform, which makes his content inaccessible... The scenario is repeated for a user of Netflixof Deezer or online games such as Steam.
Europe has therefore decided to tackle the problem through the Digital Single Market a series of measures voted on 7 February by the European Commissionthe first of their kind in the field of copyright. In a press release published on Tuesday in Brusselsthe European Commission explains: " Providers of online content services such as Netflix, MyTF1 or Spotify will verify the subscriber's country of residence by means such as checking billing details, the existence of an Internet contract or the IP address. All providers of paid online content will have to follow the same rules. Services provided free of charge (such as the online services of public television channels or radio stations) will also be able to offer portability to their subscribers. ".
In concrete terms, " if a French consumer subscribes to Canal+'s online distribution services for films and series, they will be able to access films and series available in France when they go on holiday to Croatia or the Czech Republic. business travel in Denmark ".
Coming into force in 2018
This work, which began at the end of 2015, should come into force next year: after being confirmed by the Council of the EU and the Parliament, the new rules will have to be applied by suppliers within a year. 9 months. The momentum of the Digital Single Market is set to continue. Agreements must now be reached on our other proposals to modernise EU copyright rules and provide greater access to creative content across borders. "warns Andrus Ansip, Vice-President in charge of the project.
The aim of the European institutions is to adapt regulations to the new ways of doing business. digital consumption of European citizens. The press release states that last year " 64 % of Europeans were using the Internet to play games, view images, watch films or listen to music - or download it - and increasingly on mobile devices".
