Almost precisely as the Governor of The Bank Of England was warning that Brexit would see the UK miss economic growth enjoyed by all other major economies, the Commercial Broadcasters Association (COBA) has said that TV firms may have to move some operations abroad if there is no Brexit trade deal.
As reported by the BBC, the body for international broadcasters in the UK calculates that thousands of UK broadcasting jobs could potentially be at stake in the event of a hard Brexit, where the UK leaves the EU with no formal trade agreement.Currently the UK is the driving force of European broadcasting and the EU’s Country Of Origin Principle means that international media organisations based in the UK can broadcast to anywhere in the EU. COBA executive director Adam Minns was quoted by the BBC as estimating that a quarter of all jobs in the UK broadcasting sector is working exclusively, or in part, on an international channel.
“No [trade] deal would jeopardise the UK's status as Europe's leading international broadcasting hub,” the organisation said. “International broadcasters based here would, reluctantly, be forced to restructure their European operations. No deal would put at risk thousands of jobs in the UK broadcasting sector, hundreds of millions of pounds of investment every year, and would undermine the sector's long-term global competitiveness. Like many sectors, broadcasters cannot wait until the cliff edge of March 2019 to make decisions about the future of their European businesses.”
