Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many international broadcasters currently hold an Ofcom licence that allows them to broadcast throughout the EU.

All Ofcom broadcast licence holders are allowed to provide broadcasting services throughout the EU. The Country of Origin principle, which underpins the single market for audiovisual media services, enables broadcasters to obtain a broadcasting licence in one EU Member State for all their channels and services in different EU countries.

The UK is currently one of the biggest European broadcasting hubs. According to a 2017 report by European Audiovisual Observatory, 758 channels based in the UK mainly target the European market. This represents 55% of the TV channels which hold Ofcom licenses.

Similarly, around half of the UK-based video-on-demand services (152 video-on-demand services) primarily target EU audiences.