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[Delusibeta]

Yeah, I can't see this being good news, since for videogames it makes the German ratings board the de-facto European ratings board and it won't do anything to stop Nintendo's region locking, since Nintendo doesn't region lock within the EU.

As for Netflix, I suspect that's going to be bad news as well, since it means all of the individual countries' Netflixes will be replaced with an EU Netflix, which means that only the stuff they have EU-wide rights will be on there, which will pretty much be only the Netflix Originals. It's also going to completely sink any distributor that operates on a single country level.

That said, I do suspect this will be incompatable with several local laws (e.g. the French requiring broadcasters to create a certain percentage of programming in France), and I do believe that the proposal is therefore unlikely to come into effect.

 

[Khaz]

Consider the physical equivalent - Amazon have multiple sites within the EU (.co.uk, .fr, .de, etc), but they aren't allowed to say that only people in France can order from the .fr site, or whatever.

Eh, I just ordered stuff from amazon.de a few days ago. Apart from trying to understand that mess of a language and paying exorbitant shipping fees, the experience was quite smooth.

 

[sechsterangriff]

I can see this working really well for content that usually local distributors don't bother to license.

Also, in some countries most content has been exclusive to streaming services tied to cable subscriptions. Only in recent years Apple and Google have been disrupting the market. This could be the final nail in the coffin for this sort of monopolistic policies.

 

[Delusibeta]

I can see this working really well for content that usually local distributors don't bother to license.

I expect the precise opposite will happen: the amount of stuff that goes unlicensed in the EU will skyrocket, since they will need a pan-EU deal to show anything digitally.

 

[Khaz]

Yeah, I can't see this being good news, since for videogames it makes the German ratings board the de-facto European ratings board and it won't do anything to stop Nintendo's region locking, since Nintendo doesn't region lock within the EU.

Nintendo totally does. Just make an NNID on a 3DS and try to buy stuff on a foreign eshop.

As for your other assumptions, they are incorrect as the others posts demonstrated it.

 

[Bomber Bob]

yeah fuck regional locking

since Nintendo doesn't region lock within the EU.

they do

 

[spwolf]

seems like a good start.

 

[purdobol]

This seems like a bad thing...

..if goods can't be locked out...then countries like Germany with tough legal restrictions on violent games would shit in the pool for everyone else to swim in.

Publisher can't release zombie sniper IV in Germany?
Publisher has to make zombie sniper IV available without border limits?
Publisher doesnt release Zombie Sniper IV at all or at least uncut.

...prevent companies from geo-blocking online services when it's not truly necessary

I htink that's why "when it's not truly necessary" is there. If specific country has laws against that kind of content it could be blocked in that specific case. But rest of EU has acces to it without arbitrary limitations. Netflix isn't available everywhere in EU. And if EU truly is one market than Netflix should be available to every european.

So make it happen EU!

EDIT: People who think that publishers will stop relasing content just beacuse region locks aren't there should think again. EU is the largest economy in the world.

 

[mrklaw]

Why would they try and put this in place, yet still allow broadcasting 'region locking'? All media should have the same rules applied.

 

[Hans.Gruber]

As nice as it seems. I highly doubt this will come without an *
Some countries just have subs instead of voice overs.
So they will get stuff quicker which will hurt French and German content providers.
And these two basically rule the EU.

 

[flaxknuckles]

Won't this screw game developers because everyone just buys the $10 Russian version of their game?

 

[purdobol]

Won't this screw game developers because everyone just buys the $10 Russian version of their game?

Russia is not in EU.

 

[flaxknuckles]

Russia is not in EU.

But the EU is trying to remove regional restrictions for every country

 

[Idba]

Won't this screw game developers because everyone just buys the $10 Russian version of their game?

Russia isnt in the EU nor do they have any positive relations with the EU.

Also the EU only act for themselves.

 

[Shiggy]

Won't this screw game developers because everyone just buys the $10 Russian version of their game?

*ahem* Russia isn't part of the EU.


Edit:

But the EU is trying to remove regional restrictions for every country

They can't and that's not what they are trying.

 

[Hans.Gruber]

Not to rain on anybody's parade, but here is a case for why it will not happen:

ChampionsLeague games in Germany are only available on Pay TV.
Free TV shows just one game per week (on wednesday), this can be Leverkusen vs. Zenit, even though FC Bayern plays Man City on Tuesday (way more people interested in it).

Let's say Austrian ORF (free TV) picks a game to show, they will pick Bayern because the best Austrian player is on Bayern and no Austrian team qualified.
That game would be free to watch on ORF.at for any German (in the same Language), so the German Pay TV provider would be screwed.

Solution 1 : Nobody in the EU is allowed to stream any CL games
Solution 2 : Pay TV providers eat the losses and are happy

Which one do you think is realistic?

 

[abracadaver]

does this mean the uncensored steam versions wolfenstein TNO/new blood and sleeping dogs definitive edition will be playable in germany? right now you can't play them

 

[rpmurphy]

Good for EU, that would be a good first step. If only they had any power to change global region locking.

IP blocking on streaming sites, especially. That shit is unacceptable when I'm paying for their service... if I travel to another country, I should still be able to see the same content as if I were at home.

 

[Delusibeta]

does this mean the uncensored steam versions wolfenstein TNO/new blood and sleeping dogs definitive edition will be playable in germany? right now you can't play them

No. Far more likely that the rest of the EU is forced to play the German censored versions.

 

[joezombie]

Complying with local content laws would almost certainly fall under 'truly necessary'. This would be to stop companies from blocking consumers from accessing content in different EU countries, not to stop those countries from blocking the companies

 

[purdobol]

Not to rain on anybody's parade, but here is a case for why it will not happen:

ChampionsLeague games in Germany are only available on Pay TV.
Free TV shows just one game per week (on wednesday), this can be Leverkusen vs. Zenit, even though FC Bayern plays Man City on Tuesday (way more people interested in it).

Let's say Austrian ORF (free TV) picks a game to show, they will pick Bayern because the best Austrian player is on Bayern and no Austrian team qualified.
That game would be free to watch on ORF.at for any German (in the same Language), so the German Pay TV provider would be screwed.

Solution 1 : Nobody in the EU is allowed to stream any CL games
Solution 2 : Pay TV providers eat the losses and are happy

Which one do you think is realistic?

Streaming CL cost licensing fees. So if ORF pays for licensing fee and it's financially viable for them to broadcast it for free then it's fair competition in my book.

 

[Prophet Steve]

But the EU is trying to remove regional restrictions for every country

Every country in the EU, yes.

 

[Hans.Gruber]

Streaming CL cost licensing fees. So if ORF pays for licensing fee and it's financially viable for them to broadcast it for free then it's fair competition in my book.

I don't think you get it.
ORF payed the licensing fees for Austrian TV and Austrian IP Adresses. Austria has like 8 million people.
German Sky payed to broadcast to potentially 80 million Germans via TV and Web.
You can figure out yourself who payed more and has the most say with UEFA.

ORF can never afford a license that covers all Germans, so Austrians will get the same shitty deal as Germans have. Period.

 

[MUnited83]

No. Far more likely that the rest of the EU is forced to play the German censored versions.

This is false on all accounts. If anything, it will make the EU versions not have any IP locks(so they can be activated by German users). It doesnt mean in any way, shape or form that everyone will get Germán versions at all.


Also, just a thing: there's no actual law that says that a game can't be played in Germany, just sold.

This means that the publishers putting IP locks to not allow Germans to play are nothing more than dumb. A IP lock is not required and never was. A Germán user getting a hold of a European copy and playing it is fully legal.
Hopefully this law will stop idiotic IP locks from happening because there is literally zero reasons for them to exist.

 

[purdobol]

ORF can never afford a license that covers all Germans, so Austrians will get the same shitty deal as Germans have. Period.

That will never happen. In that case UEFA would be cutting their own profits. Offering same shitty deal to every station in europe would mean fewer licenses sold.

 

[Hans.Gruber]

That will never happen. In that case UEFA would be cutting their own profits. Offering same shitty deal to every station in europe would mean fewer licenses sold.

ORF still gets the TV license, just no Streaming.
German + UK TV money is more important than many other countries combined, everybody will adjust to their biggest customer. Deal with it.

This document breaks it down nicely. Compare Bayern to a smal team and you get the picture.

http://www.uefa.org/MultimediaFiles...aorg/Finance/02/11/95/44/2119544_DOWNLOAD.pdf

 

[2+2=5]

I don't know how much it will really affect EU gamers but it's a good thing in any case.

 

[mclem]

I htink that's why "when it's not truly necessary" is there. If specific country has laws against that kind of content it could be blocked in that specific case. But rest of EU has acces to it without arbitrary limitations. Netflix isn't available everywhere in EU. And if EU truly is one market than Netflix should be available to every european.

I wonder if "Because the economy in this region won't allow us to charge the same amount as for another" would be regarded as 'truly necessary".

 

[purdobol]

ORF still gets the TV license, just no Streaming.
German + UK TV money is more important than many other countries combined, everybody will adjust to their biggest customer. Deal with it.

Is this that bad for us customers ? ORF gets TV license. And you can watch stream from German/UK television. It could be even behind paywall. Like it is now with PayTV. And when you are a customer of said PayTV. You can travel across all europe and still have acces to content you're paying for. Everybody wins.

 

[herod]

Consdiering how big the EU is and how big of a market it is, countries outside of the EU will have to abide or they lose a HUGE amount of sales.

No, there is no way the EU can enforce this on non EU companies at all.

 

[Ushay]

This sounds great. I guess Netflix would benefit the most here?

For gaming those JRPG we never get to see would become a reality right?

 

[Hans.Gruber]

Is this that bad for us customers ? ORF gets TV license. And you can watch stream from German/UK television. It could be even behind paywall. Like it is now with PayTV. And when you are a customer of said PayTV. You can travel across all europe and still have acces to content you're paying for. Everybody wins.

For paid services like netflix, maybe.
But those nice free deals some small countries have will be suffer, like free football games on the internet.
Especially for Austria, Ireland and Belgium it will be bad, because they broadcast in the same language as GER, UK and FR.
There will be a transition period, but once ORF signs a new deal with UEFA all internet streams will be forbidden (if they are available to German IP's).
Another factor would be bandwidth, how can ORF serve 80 million potential German watchers? The ORF service is scaled to Austrian population.

 

[petran79]

For paid services like netflix, maybe.
But those nice free deals some small countries have will be suffer, like free football games on the internet.
Especially for Austria, Ireland and Belgium it will be bad, because they broadcast in the same language as GER, UK and FR.
There will be a transition period, but once ORF signs a new deal with UEFA all internet streams will be forbidden (if they are available to German IP's).
Another factor would be bandwidth, how can ORF serve 80 million potential German watchers? The ORF service is scaled to Austrian population.

For those who have Satellite TV, German and British channels (ARD, ZDF, RTL, BBC etc) are free and some of them feature Champions League matches and other sports events. Also German Eurosport is free and Disney channel as well.

Another solution would be to broadcast for free and enter scrambled mode only during the match. Some channels like Rai prefer that solution

 

[purdobol]

For paid services like netflix, maybe.
But those nice free deals some small countries have will be suffer, like free football games on the internet.
Especially for Austria, Ireland and Belgium it will be bad, because they broadcast in the same language as GER, UK and FR.
There will be a transition period, but once ORF signs a new deal with UEFA all internet streams will be forbidden (if they are available to German IP's).
Another factor would be bandwidth, how can ORF serve 80 million potential German watchers? The ORF service is scaled to Austrian population.

You're right. Probably those freebies will be offered on local TV instead. But i'm speculating at this point.

 

[kiguel182]

YES! Great, great move.

Geo-blocking in this day and age is dumb and anti-consumer. Let's hope this catches on and we can stop with the whole "VPN pirates" nonesense and other crap.

 

[Hans.Gruber]

For those who have Satellite TV, German and British channels (ARD, ZDF, RTL, BBC etc) are free and some of them feature Champions League matches and other sports events. Also German Eurosport is free and Disney channel as well.

Another solution would be to broadcast for free and enter scrambled mode only during the match. Some channels like Rai prefer that solution

I (and the EU) am talking about Internet streaming. Satelite is a way different topic.
There were already lawsuits because of it. IIRC a bar owner got greek Pay TV and showed Bundesliga matches in it.

 

[petran79]

I (and the EU) am talking about Internet streaming. Satelite is a way different topic.
There were already lawsuits because of it. IIRC a bar owner got greek Pay TV and showed Bundesliga matches in it.

With IPTV you can get illegally satellite PayTV though!
Hence why those topics are confused


Inside Germany? Yes then this is illegal. But for home use a lot of Greeks get the Greek PayTV package to watch their home channels. usually through connections in Greece.

Also there is the case where a lot of bars do not get the more expensive subscription for bars, restaurants etc but broadcast through the regular license, like in the case you mentioned. Illegal again.

 

[REDSLATE]

Good. Then maybe the rest of the world will follow suit.

 

[Hans.Gruber]

With IPTV you can get illegally satellite PayTV though!
Hence why those topics are confused

Inside Germany? Yes then this is illegal. But for home use a lot of Greeks get the Greek PayTV package to watch their home channels. usually through connections in Greece.

Also there is the case where a lot of bars do not get the more expensive subscription for bars, restaurants etc but broadcast through the regular license, like in the case you mentioned. Illegal again.

It's just that Sky and Canal+ are pretty ruthless when it comes to maximizing profits.
There is a little neighborhood bar here in Berlin where I went all the time to watch the games that I couldn't watch at home (because I don't want to pay 35€ a month for Sky).
They payed like 180€ a month to show Sky. At the start of this season, Sky raised the price to 500€. And they can't afford it now.
However this EU legislation plays out. Sky and co. will find a way to screw ppl over anyway.

 

[mike4001_]

Does this also apply for region locking console languages.

Looking at you Microsoft ... ;-)

 

[Daviii]

Apparently the European media rights are a hot mess, or otherwise services like Netflix would already have been rolled out much sooner

It's not about them being a mess. Regulations are not specially troublesome.

The problem is every country is ruled by different content providers. Those have the rights of the producers. Rights netflix has to renegotiate... On a country basis. It is a mess of a rollout, but it's not about the law.

Thing is that nobody in Europe (Apart from the customers) want Netflix on their country. They simply will cannibalise the local market and drive the prices down. So producers and providers will lobby against that. Netflix fights a war in
Siberia.

 

[Monty Mole]

Hmm... so would that mean an end to region locking, or just one EU super-region that we all share between, but the wider world is still divvied up?

The latter.