Slashdot Mirror


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?

4 of 344 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Same thing in Canada by quantaman · · Score: 1, Interesting

    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.

    And it's a great idea.

    Having strong domestic media is critical if a country is going to defend itself against foreign influence.

    Politically it keeps people engaged domestically since they're interested in their own nation and the issues relevant to their nation.

    If you want to see what happens if you let yourself be dominated culturally look at the Russian pseudo-invasion of Ukraine. Sure the Russians imported a bunch of fighters and had an even bigger army to back them up, but that tactic was only viable because Ukraine hadn't achieve a proper national identity. There were a lot of East Ukrainians who identified more as Russian and were happy to back the invasion. If Ukraine had better domestic media that contingent would be smaller and Russia would never have had the opportunity.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  2. Re:Same thing in Canada by quantaman · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Having strong domestic media is critical if a country is going to defend itself against foreign influence.

    Politically it keeps people engaged domestically since they're interested in their own nation and the issues relevant to their nation.

    So you agree with Trump ? or are you just parroting him without understanding what you are saying ?

    Neither.

    Having a strong national identity isn't the same as nativism. The Canadian identity is multicultural, it's because we've maintained that identity that we're able to do things like welcome tens of thousands of Syrian refugees and mostly resist Tea Party influences moving into our politics.

    I don't think Americans are well equipped to understand this issue. Your media dominates everything, especially domestically. Aside from the occasional BBC hit or trendy foreign film everything you see comes from an American perspective.

    Other countries don't have the same economy of scale and have trouble achieving the same level of production quality, so people don't follow the media produced by their own culture. When people get disconnected it's harder to keep them engaged in society.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  3. Re:Barrier to entry by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It is US bullying and copyright laws which are the problem.

    They are problems, but how are they problems here?

    You can not take just once program you are forced to take the 1 you want plus another 9 pieces of rubbish or you get nothing.

    I fail to see the problem. Nothing is an acceptable return.

    This places a financial barrier for other networks around the world.

    It's not our fault that people around the world want some of our media so badly that we can drive a hard bargain. Maybe the rest of the world should get its shit together and become as good as we are at making media. The BBC had the most popular television show in the world until 2015, though, and they still make many of the most popular series on television. Why aren't they able to make a similar deal? The UK has the same kind of hard-on for strong IP law that we do here in the USA; in fact, the UK invented it! Remember, the first copyright law was at Alexandria, and it was about the right to copy, not the right to prevent copies. It's the English that turned that upside down, not us here in the US. But you want to blame us? Poppycock, cock.

    Foreign media has a LOT to offer, in fact the US takes a LOT of it, americanises it (i.e. ruins it with canned laughter, poor writing,etc) for the local market.

    We make our own version for two reasons. First, we don't want to read, sorry. By "we" I don't mean me, but it's still generally true, so I'm saying it. Second, we get control over the content. It doesn't support your media empire. It supports ours.

    Media is basically the thing we have going for us in the world, IMO. It keeps the world sucking our teat. It's our best possible PR. It would be daft to change the game plan now.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. Re:Same thing in Canada by Mashiki · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You should really get outside of the big cities. That's the only place where canadian identity is multicultural, the rest of the country doesn't like it. Canada is likely about to experience the same cultural awakening that Europe and it's multicultural idealism is experiencing. One also can't forget that said multicultural idea has allowed ghettos to start appearing here in Canada, something that is new to the Cancuk landscape.

    But if you don't think Americans aren't well equipped to understand this, you don't know Americans just like you don't know Canadians outside of the social bubbles in big cities.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...