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

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?

Comments

How about content providers pull out of Europa

[Foxhoundz]

I'm talking the whole shebang: Google, Netflix, Yahoo, Amazon Web Services, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Let's see how fast and to what degree of stability could the EU sustain its own content network without major US backing.

Re:How about content providers pull out of Europa

[Anonymous Coward]

Excellent idea. In fact the world should ban US content, i.e. exclude the USA from 96% of the worlds population.
And while you are at it, keep your military, your drones, your CIA meddling , your economic bullying and your other "US interests" at home too.

The EU is already a BIGGER economy than the USA, China is only a few years away from being the 2nd biggest economy.

Peak USA was the 1950s-1970s since then it has stagnated while the rest of the world has grown.
Turns out the USA needs the rest of the world more than the rest of the world needs the USA.

Re:How about content providers pull out of Europa

[Anonymous Coward]

Europe is too big a market to abandon.

Re:How about content providers pull out of Europa

[Anonymous Coward]

We would LOVE to do that. But everytime we do, some little whiney bitch like yourself complains that we didnt help . Or one of your beloved EU countries goes into some shithole, fucks shit all up, and cries to the US to come save them (and them blames us for all the shit they fucked up).

I also find it amusing that you come to a US site to complain about how much you hate the US and everything it does. All the while you use hardware/software designed by US companies (using IP owned by US companies), consume US media, and jerk off to pictures of Hillary Clinton. (Or Bill if thats your thing)

Re:How about content providers pull out of Europa

[meerling]

Depends on which of the 3 "first computer" you want to count. Two of which were by people in the UK.
On the other hand, making personal computers available to the masses, that was definitely from the US.

Of course, getting into a dick waving contest over who made what has pretty much nothing to do with the topic, which in case you've forgotten in your excitement to pull your dick out and start waving it around, is non-european media providers being forced provide and even pay for specific language programming.

Re:How about content providers pull out of Europa

[Tom]

This bullshit comes up every stupid time that US companies are told that actually, you know, Europe is not a state within the USA, and it actually - unbelievable! - has its own laws. How dare they?

Pull out of Europe. PLEASE. Pretty please.

Guess why they don't? Not even if the EU puts a billion Euro (omg, they have their own currency, too!) fine on them for some of the shit they did?

Because if a multinational corporation had to choose between doing business in the USA or Europe, but not both, each and every one of them would rather pull out of the USA. Europe is bigger both in population and market size. Europe has more and better business connections to the rest of the world, especially the fast growing zones. Europe is a more challenging market, but pulling out of it is suicide. If any of the large Internet companies did that, it would be out of business very fast. Google, Facebook, doesn't matter. If there were no Facebook, say, in Europe, how long do you think it would take the 740 million people inside to either bring up a competitor, or move to non-western competitors like VK (from Russia) or Renren (from China)? How long do you think Facebook could compete with a global competitor with more than a billion users, if it had decided to pull out of the European market? If american users had a choice to stay on Facebook, but be isolated from their European friends, or move over to something else and connect with the world?

Please, pretty please, let's have one major international corporation do this stupid suicide move and pull out of Europe, so that we finally don't have to see this asine comment on every fucking story about Europe all the time. And you wonder why the rest of the world thinks that half of America is mentally retarded. Because of stupid comments like that, that's why.

Let's see how fast and to what degree of stability could the EU sustain its own content network without major US backing.

Instantly. We already have local alternatives to many US services. You just never heard of them. Just one example: Here in Germany, Linkedin is known mostly for the stupid spam they send to you all the time, the primary business social network is Xing. And no, it's not a copy of Linkedin, it is even slightly older (by a few months, or if you count when Linkedin became available in german, by 6 years).

You need to get off your high horse. If the USA would be swallowed by the ocean tomorrow, the rest of the world would have replaced everything run from there within a few months.

Barrier to entry

[Dunbal]

And what exactly is stopping French/German/Other EU companies from making their own national "Netflix" showing 100% local content? What do you mean no one wants to fucking pay for it? Surely there must be someone stupid enough to pay again for what they get through their local service anyway.

Re:Barrier to entry

[hcs_$reboot]

That's not the point. French (and Europeans in general) want to watch American movies/series. Would it be from Netflix or a local provider. But the French government, for the sake of "Cultural exception", and in order to give jobs to many "shows Intermittents" (actors working temporarily on a show) want Netflix to make local movies and TV shows. That's already the case in France, and most of the "local sponsored content" (made by TVs) results usually in a crappy outcome (bad script, bad play...). That's the difference between "You'll get money if your movie is good" and "This is the money, take it and do what you want".

"even playing field"

[dnaumov]

You keep using that word, it does not mean what you think it does. In this case, it's actually the total opposite.

1) People can and do vote with their wallets. Nobody HAS to order Netflix. In any country.

2) If the stuff french filmmakers produce is not wanted by consumers, well that's too damn bad. Adapt or die.

Re: "even playing field"

[dnaumov]

I live in the EU and would very much like for EU bureaucrats to stop fucking up "the market" with their meddling. Calling something "making an even playing field" while in reality advancing the exact total opposite, a protectionist agenda, just takes the fucking cake. Thanks, but no thanks.

Re:"even playing field"

[Anonymous Coward]

Weird, because the USA has one of the least free markets in the developed world.

Huge portions of their economy have trade barriers, subsidies, regulatory barriers etc etc etc that prevents other countries from being able to sell their products in the USA.

Kill your agriculture subsidies and trade barriers and THEN come and tell us how the US should be allowed into other countries.

Re:"even playing field"

[ScentCone]

Same for netflix, if doesn't want to respect the markets rules can go elsewhere.

It's not a market when you make the merchant into a slave.

Well

[Anonymous Coward]

Since the studios insist the world is divided into regions and are fighting tooth and nail to prevent a free global market when it comes to content it is only fair they are forced to specially cater for those markets... nes't pa?

DONE! "...reserve at least 20per cent share..."

[tlambert]

DONE! "...reserve at least 20per cent share..."

Feel free to get off your asses and fill that reserved-but-currently-empty space with content.

XOXO
-- Netflix

Warning

[Anonymous Coward]

For those of you who don't live in the UK, please be aware, 99% of everything in the Daily Mail is lies. This rises to 99.9% for stories about "Europe". Be ye warned.

Re:Same thing in Canada

[Pig Hogger]

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.)

Except for Québec movies who are wildly popular about. We have to keep in mind that English Canada has no significant culture of it’s own, given how much it is not much distinguishable from American “culture”

Re:What could go wrong?

[ScentCone]

... or they could do a little work and find thousands and thousands of European classics?

Why should that be the responsibility of Netflix, or a cost burden carried by its customers? What's stopping an entrepreneur (it's even a French word!) in France from providing such a service for all of those French people just dying to pay to see those works? I get it, though. France makes it so miserable to try to start and run a business in that country that they'll never see anyone bother. So, let's just make Netflix an organ of the State and force them to do it! Socialists.

Stop fighting fate.

[pla]

Dying languages really need to quit pissing in the wind. Yes, the world will always have a place for French as a Dead language, right up there with Latin and Greek.

But really... Quit tilting at windmills, guys - We'll all either speak English or Mandarin a century from now. All the "also-rans" need to throw in the towel and pick a side.

Re: Another example of regulatory overreach

[Anonymous Coward]

Netflix should make a show about a bunch of French-Canadians talking about how fucking stupid socialist laws from France are that require content to be in French. It should be super low budget with three or four people sitting around a coffee shop table just taking about how France doesn't even know how small and crappy it's economy and world role are these days. As a backdrop there could be a bulletin board with a bunch of anti-EU comments in English, job advertisements in German and requests for long long term investors in Greek.

moron

[Tom]

should U.S.-based companies be facing "regional quotas" for the content they're offering?

Yes, you moron. You see, as long as your "US-based" company stays in the US, it can do whatever the fuck it wants. But when you do business in other regions of the world, boom, big surprise, suddenly the rules of those regions are a thing. Who could've seen that coming, right?

Re:What could go wrong?

[Tom]

Why should that be the responsibility of Netflix, or a cost burden carried by its customers?

Yeah, why should companies have any responsibilities? If I want to produce a car that throws out so much pollution you can't see for a mile around it, shouldn't I be allowed to? And if my children toys sometimes kill a kid, parents can just stop buying them, right? Why should the government interfere with my business and tell me I can't use poisonous paint? It's a free country! And while we're at it, if I want to sell kiddie porn on the street to school children, why can't I? There's demand, there's supply, let the magical invisible hand of the market sort it out! Socialists! They won't allow me to do as I want!

---

Part of living in a society is that there are rules that the society makes that not everyone in it might like. You know, making murder illegal. Generally a good idea, even if sometimes you just really want to kill someone and it's so damn inconvenient you're not allowed to.

Well, guess what, there are rules about doing business. Some are for reasons of safety. Some are for reasons of ethics (disallowing some scammy business methods). And some are for reasons of culture, like this one. You can like it or not, just like murder being illegal, but that is how it is and if you want to be part of this society (i.e. do business in this country), then you follow these rules, period.

Don't like it? Nothing is stopping Netflix from staying out of Europe and leaving the market to local competitors. Of course they won't do it. Never in a thousand years. Europe is a much bigger market with much more people than the USA.