Brits won't be able to access UK Netflix in EU after Brexit

Brits won't be able to access UK Netflix in EU after Brexit
By Emma Beswick
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As of the withdrawal date, UK citizens won't be able to benefit from their digital subscriptions, like BBC iPlayer and their UK Netflix catalogue, when travelling in the EU.

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Brits won't benefit from new "digital portability rules" in the EU after Brexit, the European Commission announced Wednesday.

The new rules, which come into force on Sunday, will allow users in European Union member states to access their domestic digital content including films, sports events, eBooks, video games and music services when travelling in the EU.

They affect the likes of video streaming services like Netflix.

From Easter Sunday, if you're a French Netflix user and travel to Germany you will still be able to access the French video catalogue.

However, the UK will no longer benefit from this upgrade to services once it leaves the bloc on March 29, 2019.

"As of the withdrawal date, persons residing in the United Kingdom will no longer benefit from their digital content subscriptions when travelling to the EU," the notice read.

The European Commission said the new cross-border portability regulation aimed to "broaden access to online content services for travellers in the EU".

The rules will also extend to broadcast television — UK-based networks will have to clear rights with every EU member state in which its signal is received.

EU broadcasters will have to do the same in order to serve their UK audience.

The statement came days after the UK's involvement in the Galileo project after Brexit was called into question

The European Commission wrote to the UK in January saying its involvement would be "readjusted" citing "security concerns" as the reason.

Galileo is a €10 billion navigation project that aims to build a European rival to an American GPS system.

Correction: This article has been updated to remove BBC's VOD facility iPlayer as affected by the new portability regulations.

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