Bringing Culture And Media To The Table

Michael Hedges May 23, 2013 - Follow on Twitter

So complex are economics that multi-lateral trade agreements are best negotiated in good times. Big agreements are hard to put together anytime as countries fight for want they want with all the leverage they can muster. Every export is favored and every import is resisted. But trade is important for stagnant economies and the media sector has come into play once again.

In France nothing raises national fervor as much as protecting culture, French culture, from the onslaught of others. French negotiators introduced the term ’exception culturelle’ (cultural exception) twenty years ago to separate the audiovisual sector from other industries in the massive General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) treaty. Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti and Foreign Trade Minister Nicole Bricq insist “ the cultural exception is clearly a red line.”

Adding its support for a “cultural exception” in the proposed EU-US free-trade agreement Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the trade association for European public broadcasters said “the inclusion of audiovisual services in the negotiations would harm the European audiovisual industry and dent European cultural diversity.” The European Parliament (Europarl) votes this week on the general mandate for EU negotiators. Under the Lisbon Treaty the European Parliament must approve all bilateral and multi-lateral trade agreements.

Public broadcasters have a particular concern if European Union (EU) trade ministers agree to put the audiovisual media sector on the same negotiating table as financial services, intellectual property, agriculture, fishing and internet commerce. “The ability of the EU and Member States to support and stimulate the audiovisual sector needs to be maintained,” noted European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Director General Ingrid Deltenre in a statement (May 21). The US media industry has a “built-in competitive advantage,” in the EBU’s view, and “more trade liberalization would offer opportunities for the US to make further inroads into the European market, but not vice versa.” (See EBU presser here)

Trade liberalization’s effect on the European film industry, the “low-hanging fruit” argument, would be a “disaster,” observed award winning director Wim Wenders, coincident with the Cannes Film Festival. “It would also result in European films vanishing from cinema screens in Europe and around the world and in irreparable damage to European culture,” said the European Film Academy (EFA), of which Mr. Wenders is president. European films sold 33.6% of all EU movie tickets in 2012, a 12% rise year on year, reported Hollywood Reporter (May 7).

The US entertainment industry is, of course, always looking to expand and has viewed the “cultural exception” as nothing more than parochial protectionism. European government subsidies for film production and the arts generally, direct or indirect subsidy of public broadcasting, European content quotas and ownership restrictions are confounding to free-marketers from the US. And, too, the US entertainment industry, as a whole, has long been a serious political contributor, though amounts pale in comparison with the drug, defense, energy and banking sectors. Then there’s Silicon Valley.

The big picture for the EU and US is creating a giant free-trade zone to put pressure on China. “I’m against carve-outs because I believe that when you aim at a comprehensive agreement it should be possible to discuss about everything,” said EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht, quoted by Bloomberg (May 20). The TTIP negotiations should “open up new opportunities for Europe’s creative industries,” he said in April, adding “the cultural exception will not be negotiated.”

Minister Filippetti secured agreement on the “cultural exception” from 13 other EU culture ministers who expressed their sentiment to the Irish EU Presidency in a letter to Ireland’s Culture Minister Jimmy Deenihan. “An entire policy of the European Union and its Member States would be compromised if the requested exclusion were not ensured,” it said. Ireland holds the rotating EU Presidency. Culture Ministers from the UK, the Netherlands and Scandinavia did not join.

The BBC and other television producers are major exporters to the US and worldwide. The Netherlands is home to reality TV giant Endemol. TV producers in Denmark and Sweden – along with non-EU Member Norway – have found export success in recent years.

There is one other European audiovisual export success: media executives. ITV News chief editor Deborah Turness was named president of NBC News this week. The New York Times Company hired former BBC Director General Mark Thompson last year and RTL Group CEO Gerhard Zeiler left to become president of Turner Broadcasting International, part of Time Warner. In 2009, Luis Fernández, president of Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE, quit to become president of Univision Studios in the US.

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