22OCT

Marking code draws 190, none of them TV

3 min read

16:20UTC

The Commission's initial signatory list carries 82 providers and 152 deployers, and no broadcaster, streamer or studio at all.

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Key takeaway

The firms selling synthetic-media capability into Europe signed a marking standard; their broadcast customers did not.

The European Commission published the initial signatory list for its Code of Practice on marking AI-generated content on 31 July 2026, carrying roughly 190 organisations split 82 to Section 1, for providers, and 152 to Section 2, for deployers⁠¹. Not one of the 190 is a broadcaster, streamer, studio or sports rights-holder.

The media-relevant names sit almost entirely on the supply side. Synthesia, Getty Images, Google, Meta and Microsoft signed Section 1, alongside Anthropic, OpenAI, Mistral and Aleph Alpha⁠². Section 2's closest equivalents are Fastweb, Flipsnack and TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications. Absent: Netflix, Disney, Sky, ITV, the BBC, RTL, ProSiebenSat.1, ARD, ZDF, France Televisions, TF1, M6, Mediaset, RAI, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, Comcast, NBCUniversal and DAZN.

That absence now reads differently. This briefing reported on 7 July that no broadcaster could sign an instrument the Commission had not yet certified as adequate, and treated the empty list as procedure rather than reluctance. The Code was finalised on 10 June with a signature window closing 27 July, and about 190 organisations went through it. Article 50 became binding two days after publication, on 2 August, with systems already deployed grandfathered to 2 December.

Section 2 drew nearly twice Section 1's signatures, which removes the easy explanation. Deployers as a class did not stay away. Broadcasters specifically did.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

The European Union has a new law requiring AI-generated video, audio and images to carry a hidden marker saying a machine made them. Alongside the law, Brussels wrote a voluntary code of good practice and invited companies to sign it. Signing is a way of saying you will follow the rules properly, and it makes life easier if a regulator ever asks questions. About 190 companies signed by the deadline. Almost all of the media-related ones make the AI tools: Synthesia, Getty Images, Google, Meta and Microsoft. Not a single television company, film studio or streaming service signed, anywhere in Europe or America. The law itself came into force two days later regardless.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Section 1 and Section 2 ask signatories to certify different things. A provider signs against a product with a single marking surface, the file it generates. A broadcaster deploys synthetic content across production, archive, advertising sales and distribution, frequently through third-party tooling it did not build and cannot fully inspect, which makes one signature a commitment it cannot evidence end to end.

The AI Omnibus supplies the timing. Systems already on the market before 2 August 2026 are grandfathered to 2 December, so an established broadcaster running existing tooling faces no immediate duty while a vendor shipping new deployments does. Vendors shipping new deployments therefore meet a deadline that established broadcasters do not.

A third cause sits in the tooling. Marking happens inside the generation step, which a broadcaster that buys rather than builds does not own, so it cannot promise a behaviour its vendor controls.

What could happen next?

Meaning
The absence of every broadcaster from a list containing 152 deployers indicates a sector-specific decision rather than a general reluctance among deployers.
Immediate · Assessed
Consequence
European broadcasters deploying new synthetic content after 2 August carry the evidentiary burden themselves rather than resting on a presumption of conformity.
Short term · Assessed
Risk
Whether the Commission publishes later tranches, which would reveal whether broadcasters were absent by choice or by timing.
Short term · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources from Belgium

Belgium

Primary parallel: The EU Code of Practice on Disinformation ran from 2018 as a voluntary instrument signed largely by platforms rather than by publishers or broadcasters, was judged insufficient in the Commission's 2020 assessment, and was subsequently absorbed into the Digital Services Act as binding obligation. The population of early signatories shaped the standards that later bound everyone.

Counter-parallel: The Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech, also voluntary and also platform-signed, has remained voluntary for nine years without hardening into statute. Voluntary codes in Brussels do not automatically become binding, and a broadcaster betting on this one staying soft is making a bet with precedent behind it.

Consensus view: Signature counts measure legal appetite rather than operational readiness. Trade counsel across European broadcasting read the Code as adding documentation duties beyond the statute itself, and reason that Article 50 binds regardless, so signing buys a presumption of conformity at the cost of an audit trail a regulator can later test.

Counter-view: Procurement does not read statutes. A published Commission list is a binary artefact that appears in vendor questionnaires and tender scoring, and its absence is far easier for a competitor to weaponise than its presence is to defend.

Key tension: Whether the Code functions as a compliance instrument or as a market signal. Brussels has produced a public register of roughly 190 organisations that accepted a marking standard, in a sector where synthetic content is the contested input. Registers of that kind tend to outlive the question of whether signing was ever legally necessary.

First Reported In

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

European Commission· 3 Aug 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

EU finalises its AI content-marking Code

The signatory list published on 31 July is the direct product of the Code finalised on 10 June.

Occurred 10 Jun 2026

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Correction: the EU deadline is 27 July

The 27 July signature deadline set by the Commission produced the initial list published four days later.

Occurred 24 Jul 2026

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Brussels stalls its own AI-label code

The adequacy assessment reported on 7 July, previously offered as the reason for zero signatures, resolved into roughly 190.

Occurred 7 Jul 2026

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Brussels moves Article 50 to December

The AI Omnibus grandfathering determines which deployments face the 2 August obligation immediately.

Occurred 1 May 2026

Read story →

This Event

Marking code draws 190, none of them TV

Resolves a WATCH FOR this briefing has carried for four updates, and retires the procedural explanation we published for the empty list.

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.