3AUG

Synthesia signs where its rivals did not

1 min read

17:21UTC

Synthesia is the only pure AI-video vendor in Section 1 of the Code; Runway, ElevenLabs and Adobe are absent entirely.

← Back to AI marking code gets 190 names, no broadcasters Jump to analysis ↓

IndustryDeveloping

Key takeaway

Synthesia bought a procurement advantage over Runway and ElevenLabs for the price of a signature.

Synthesia is the only pure AI-video generation vendor to appear in Section 1 of the European Commission's published signatory list, and Getty Images is the only media-adjacent name in both sections⁠¹. Runway and ElevenLabs do not appear at all.

That matters commercially rather than legally. Signing buys a presumption of conformity and nothing more, and an unsigned vendor with a working provenance pipeline is in better technical shape than a signed one without. But procurement does not assess pipelines in the first meeting. It asks what the vendor can evidence, and a Commission-published signature is the cheapest possible answer.

Runway opened a London headquarters on 1 June and named the BBC, Fremantle and WPP as paying customers, and ElevenLabs opened tender talks at a $22bn valuation on 2 July. Both are selling into exactly the European broadcasters now facing a live Article 50 duty, and neither is on the list their customers will be asked about.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Several companies sell software that generates video using AI. European broadcasters buy from them. Under the new European law, whatever those broadcasters put on screen has to be labelled as machine-made. One of those vendors, Synthesia, signed the European code of good practice. Its main competitors, including Runway and ElevenLabs, did not sign at all. When a broadcaster's lawyers ask a supplier to prove it takes the labelling rules seriously, Synthesia now has a document to hand over and the others do not.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Enterprise procurement resolves compliance questions with documents rather than architecture, because a buyer cannot audit a vendor's generation pipeline inside a tender window. A Commission-published signature is the cheapest artefact that answers the question, which gives it commercial weight out of proportion to the legal presumption it actually confers.

What could happen next?

Meaning
Synthesia has acquired a documentation advantage in European tenders that its competitors cannot replicate until a further signing window opens.
Risk
Whether Runway or ElevenLabs publicly address their absence, which would indicate buyers are raising it.

Sources:European Commission

Mentions:Synthesia →European Commission →Runway →ElevenLabs →Fremantle →London →EU AI Act Article 50 →Getty Images →

First Reported In

Update #11 · AI marking code gets 190 names, no broadcasters

European Commission· 3 Aug 2026

Read original →

Different Perspectives

Publicis Groupe

Publicis Groupe credited AI demand for its Connected Media growth in the 13 October third-quarter release, reporting net revenue of €3,808m, up 5.0% organically. It named no AI product, so investors get the AI claim without a product to measure it against.

Educational Broadcasting System

Educational Broadcasting System premiered EBS AI Literature Theatre on 16 October, remaking 11 Korean literary classics with generative AI. Korea's public education broadcaster puts AI-made drama on air under its own name, while the BBC's director-general said he 'got in trouble' for praising an AI Doctor Who episode.

Hakuhodo

Hakuhodo began selling its in-house Image Similarity Checker on 19 October, scoring AI-generated ad creative against similar images on the web and logging who checked what. The Japanese agency is selling the compliance step around generative advertising and leaves the legal judgment with its clients.

Lisa Nandy

Nandy told Sky on 15 October she is minded to issue a public interest intervention notice on its purchase of ITV's Media and Entertainment business, on four grounds including news plurality. She notes Comcast's Sky News undertakings expire in December 2028 and do not cover ITV News or ITN, in which Sky would take a 20% stake.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation asked Parliament's AI committee to extend the News Bargaining Incentive to AI firms and hold them to the copyright, defamation and privacy rules news outlets follow. With SBS telling the same committee that robots.txt is routinely ignored, the public broadcasters are contesting the opt-out Anthropic proposed.

Editorial Perfil

Perfil reported on 14 October that Civil Court No. 57 kept its damages suit against OpenAI and Microsoft out of the federal courts, and it wants a pre-trial inspection of their California servers. Its lawyer says Microsoft Argentina came to mediation without a serious offer, and Perfil seeks payment rather than takedowns.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.