On 27 October, the EBU voiced its deep concern about Meta's updated Commercial Terms. The new terms give Meta and its artificial intelligence (AI) agents broad permission to scrape content from websites linked to a Meta business account. The EBU and almost every public service media (PSM) organization hold such accounts to manage their pages and channels on Meta services. As the terms stand, the only way to opt out is to leave Meta's platforms altogether. For PSM, that is not a genuine choice, because these platforms are important, strategic gateways to their audiences.

Last week's revisions (for example, "limiting the stated purpose to advertising and business products") do not solve the problem. The terms could still allow Meta to use content for AI purposes, the breadth of access is unchanged, and Meta's assurance that it respects robots.txt, the file a website uses to signal its crawling preferences, is a public statement rather than a binding term of the contract.

This is a real concern for the EBU and its Members. On these websites, broadcasters publish their own content and also large volumes of third-party material that they cannot license to others, such as sports footage, music, agency photographs and news agency content. The new terms are incompatible with the right of reservation under the DSM Copyright Directive, because they take away rights-holders' ability to decide how their content is used. As drafted, the terms also raise serious concerns under Article 102 TFEU and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and have alarmed the wider media sector.

The EBU welcomes the scrutiny now under way by the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority, as well as Meta's decision to postpone. However, postponing is not a solution.

The EBU calls on Meta to revise the terms before they take effect. Two changes matter most:

Separate access from content use: holding a Meta business account should not automatically give Meta permission to use PSM content. Any permission should cover only content the account holder owns, and should not extend to whole domains, affiliated or linked sites, archives, or material shared by others.

Provide a real, non-retaliatory opt-out: account holders should be able to refuse that permission without leaving the platforms and without any penalty in access, distribution or referral. For example, AI training and development should be excluded unless separately and expressly authorized, and machine-readable reservations such as robots.txt should be honoured as binding terms.

"We are ready to find a workable solution, but not one that forces public service media to hand over use of their content, and others’ content, simply to reach their audiences. We ask Meta to revise these terms and give a meaningful way to opt-out," said Richard Burnley, EBU Legal and Policy Director.

EBU will continue to work with its Members and the wider industry, including through its Facts In, Facts Out (FI:FO) campaign, to ensure media content is used only with authorization.