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Netflix and Amazon Could Face Content Quotas In Europe (dailymail.co.uk)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the Chateau-de-Cartes dept.

jader3rd quotes an articles from The Daily Mail about a new EU proposal to be published next week: Netflix and Amazon could be forced to make French, German and even Estonian films and TV shows by the EU. The US companies could also be hit with taxes to raise funds to support the work of film-makers in Europe. The proposal is thought to be driven by the French, who are particularly fearful of their cinema and TV programmes being eclipsed by English language productions... One draft says the aims is to create 'a more level playing field in the promotion of European works by obliging on-demand services to reserve at least 20 percent share for European works in their catalogues and to ensure adequate prominence of such works'.
French may become the world's most-spoken language by 2050 (due to its popularity among the fast-growing population of Africa). But even so, should U.S.-based companies be facing "regional quotas" for the content they're offering?

3 of 344 comments (clear)

  1. Same thing in Canada by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Canadian government has "always" had a film-making pool that all cable television companies are required to put a percentage of their revenue into, which is then doled out to make Canadian movies and television shows (most of which nobody actually watches, of course.) The cable companies are also required to show a certain percentage of Canadian television shows, and radio stations must play a certain percentage of Canadian music.

    None of this currently applies to outfits like Netflix, and the incumbent cable companies and movie and television producers are pushing for them to also have to put money into their fund. I suspect it won't be long before an attempt is made to actually do it -- it gets brought up regularly.

    --
    If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
  2. Re: Barrier to entry by MisterSquid · · Score: 3, Informative

    Why the fuck would Canadian or Australian tv shows be subtitled in English ? They speak the language better than Americans. They can also use a knife and fork correctly too.

    1. Hearing impaired.
    2. Visual channel for poor/no audio environments.
    3. Screenshots in an educational (i.e. Fair Use) context.
    4. Other uses not anticipated by easily offended linguistic nativists.
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    blog
  3. Re:"even playing field" by beh · · Score: 1, Informative

    Any company can offer anything anywhere?

    OK, by that token, you'll be happy if, say, a Nigerian company sells cancer medicine that is deemed safe in Nigeria to the US market without any meddling by the FDA, right?

    Every market can regulate whatever they want - and, what might be a difficult concept for you to grasp is, that Netflix wouldn't be forced to sell Estonian films in the US. But the cost of business to enter the European market might have to be a certain percentage of films made in other languages.

    As for your comment about the quality of stuff French filmmakers produce -
        a) The US industry seems to have a knack for rather remaking stuff than taking over others - even if it's originating from another English-speaking country (e.g. the UK): See "The Office", the sucky US-version of "Red Dwarf", ...

        b) Given the a lot smaller size of other countries movie industries - have a look at how many of them were remade in the US -
                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ...and that is not just old movies but recent ones as well...