The time has come: the United Kingdom is leaving the EU. The "process," as they say here in London, "is a mess," but the divorce comes, hard or soft. Media companies have only started to realize what that will mean for them in recent months: the short-term willingness to take action (as so often in the media) is suddenly high. International players who felt comfortable in London for years seem to be moving quickly and are leaving the perfidious Albion. The British media watchdog Ofcom only calculated that British TV and film production had reached a value of more than 3 billion euros. So there is quite a lot at stake ...

The greatest impact is expected from television channels. The British government has been very liberal with broadcasting permits since the Thatcher era. I myself have experienced in several meetings with British media authorities how British TV channels were tightly restricted in the field of product placement, for example. However, little was done in the way of foreign TV channels. The famous U-turn was already "sold" by the British to foreign TV channels before it came into being in Luxembourg. Particularly in Scandinavia, this was used enthusiastically. SBS and Viasat / TV3 are the best-known examples of channels that established themselves in London, just as RTL Nederland chose Luxembourg as their location.

In addition, most American channel groups found London a pleasant location. Discovery and Viacom, especially through its subsidiary MTV, were examples of media companies settling in London. Ofcom has now issued more than 1000 broadcasting licenses, of which more than 700 are aimed at abroad! In the wake of these broadcasters, many foreign producers also settled in London. I also enjoyed this myself when I was asked by Ronald Goes to assist in setting up Warner Bros' international TV production operations from London, a great adventure. Universal, Sony, and many others also established their European headquarters in London. This makes sense, because the ties between the UK and the US are still close and the American top managers felt more at home in London than in Paris or Luxembourg.

In addition, London became the epicenter for the trade in TV programs and formats. Almost every international player has established its distribution activities in London, including European producers. British companies had, of course, been doing this for years, were well acquainted with the international channels and had tremendous success in exporting British content around the world. A very lucrative business was thus developed, the United Kingdom rivals the United States market leader.

Is this unique ecosystem endangered by Brexit? The international channels seem to choose their eggs for their money and apply for broadcasting licenses en masse in other countries. Discovery opted especially for Bavaria and received permits for 19 TV channels within a month. Turner and Universal followed. Discovery also opened a dependence in Amsterdam. MTV has already migrated some of its channels to the Netherlands and seems to choose our country. On top of it all is the BBC: natural overspill is a thing of the past, Auntie Beep is also going to apply for European broadcasting licenses. The battle seems to be between Amsterdam and Brussels.

International media players will also be hosting their IP catalogs outside the UK. The Netherlands has long been a favorite location in this field and will remain so in the future. It will not surprise anyone if international distribution activities leave London in its wake. It is already clear: the London media world will also be predominantly British after Brexit.

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