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?
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?
Because trump will lose the vote in november, and the USA will be sold to the highest bidding chinese maffia boss.
Netflix should laugh at such frivolous demands.
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!
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.
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.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Wooooooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Estonian movies - just what I've been waiting for!
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
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.
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?
If they want more french content, they should make it themself.
If elected president, Trump will save us from the DEMONS that roam freely in this country.
... Amazon and Netflix could be "forced" to have a quota of movies from those States because it's already in the European States law and has been for several years (only the quota varies between States).
All content distributors have to reserve quotas on their catalog, that goes for TV Stations, cable companies or IPTV, VoD platforms, video stores, etc. Only the medium and distribution platform changes, not the law, and what it's being questioned is why those companies aren't complying with the law, nothing else. It's just an update from "broadcasting" platforms to "streaming" platforms.
Perfect idea - a spinoff "Terrance & Phillip" show, guided by the same people that write South Park, but written strictly targeting each region...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
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
What would prevent Amazon or Netflix from just approaching some YouTubers in these countries, offering them 100 euro for the worst and most crappy movies ever produced in French, German and all the other European languages, and putting these on their platform as the 'required local content quota fillers'. Hey, if 20% has to be European, nobody ever said it had to be the best European movies and shows... I would be more than willing to produce Dutch content for Netflix, consisting of hourlong diatribes against ridiculous European regulations designed to protect crappy content from competition. Hell, I'd probably do it for free. My German is just good enough to even produce a rant in German, which could potentially be submitted under comedy, considering my mediocre german vocabulary and pronunciation skills.
The article states that a certain proportion of the streaming output should be in the European languages. This can be done without the streaming services making programmes in these languages. All they have to do is stream sufficient (already existing) 'native' TV programmes and movies to meet the quota.
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.
I've never really understood why "the man" wants to make it hard for me to spend my money to legally access the content I want to watch.
Lets presume Neflix can identify 2000 European works in their existing global catalog. To attain 20% European content, their European Catalog suddenly becomes limited to 10,000 movies. This will be 8000 mainstream movies and 2000 European movies. Anyone who wants to watch Independents or Classics will be out of luck.
The real question is what the customers do next. Will they step in line and only watch the "Mass Media" movies? Or, will they find themselves driven to VPNs and PirateBay in search of the classics.
Our roads and bridges are crumbling.
That's because they are melting away in the TEARS OF GOD that RAIN DOWN ONTO OUR COUNTRY because of the DEMOCRAT rule of this country.
A victory in 2016 by Trump would be a step in the right direction. But it won't be until 2020 with Ted Cruz that we can start solving the problem at the core.
They get EU wide license on content? Right now they have to negotiate content in every country they want to show it. This is how the old industry likes it.
People and goods can move across borders. But movies and TV series cannot.
Why do these French feel inferior?
I greatly enjoy the French programming that Netflix and Amazon stream. Just put the English subtitles on and enjoy. There aren't enough French series on Netflix and Amazon.
Why do these French fear the English and we Americans? (Other than beating their asses on the battlefield and winning their wars for them. Come one, we American like you.)
Argh.. Marseille on Netflix is horrible. (I am not French, but I am European).
New Top Gear on Netflix is probably going to be awesome.
Currently, I estimate 10% of Finland's Netflix content to be European. And most of it is good stuff, too. Original European versions of TV shows that you Americans made worse (Killing, Bridge).
Now the French want to put more crap on Netflix.. Just great. I think 10-20% of our local Netflix is totally unwatchable as it is, because it is just some crappy movies that have IMDB rating of 1.9 - 4.9 and they really suck. If they want it to be 20% of content by your local country, I am quitting my subscription immediately. I can't even begin to imagine, that amount of crap they have to buy just to fill the quota.
"Geo-blocking and other geographically-based restrictions undermine online shopping and cross-border sales. The Digital Single Market strategy includes a commitment for an initiative to end unjustified geo-blocking by way of legislative proposals to change the e-Commerce framework or the Services Directive framework."
I don't recall French speaking people being forced to use NetFlix. Shouldn't French services have the ability to compete by differentiating themselves by providing French content?
Of course, NetFlix could probably meet the quota simply by paying Funimation to dub to French.
Assuming the UK is still the EU after 23rd June: it being being European - and according to EU rules - it too should be able to share that money. Which would be ironic, not just because it would piss off the French and the Germans, but also Newspaper (think Murdock) Big Content (er.. M..) and Cable (ah.. M) companies whom have been been lobbying the UK Government to clip the BBC's wings for the last couple of decades.
As a european I can happily say that the french can go fuck themselves and their culture.
If their culture is so weak and pathetic that it can't survive by creating it's own movies and series then it deserves to die out.
This is exactly the kind of BS that makes me want to leave the EU.
All these stupid regulations that make it more difficult for me to buy the things I want.
And for good measure I hope the africans start speaking chinese just to spite the french mother fuckers.
Dear French Content Creators, maintain calm for now and ask for reserved quota when the status of your work changes from 'moderately endangered' to 'critically endangered'.
There have been laws in the past requiring some percentage of local content on TV, for example in Canada. The laws originated because TV content was delivered via air-waves, which were a shared national resource, hence it was thought fairness should be regulated. What the politicians don't get is that Netflix is not pushing/broadcasting content, it is an on-demand/pull model. What this means is that even if they were to reserve 20% (though I'm not sure what that means as cloud storage can be extended almost at will) for French content, it is not going to result in the content being watched if people prefer to watch the other content. So what's next, forcing Netflix to make users watch French content? How is that going to work, a used gets a message when they go to watch rerun of "Friends" - "Sorry, no more non-French content allowed for you until you go watch a few hours of French content"?
Start publishing and publicizing some of these non English movies for the English speaking public.
I would personally love to watch them and learn the Language with Subtitles but there is no method for me to even knows the names of them anyway without actually going there.
That's supposed to be the purpose of the Internet. Sadly everyone seems to want to either try to hide who they are or act like you are an intruder if you want to learn their language. It is all very strange.
If the French weren't so terrified of the weakness of their culture, it might just be strong enough to not need this "protection."
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.
Netflix could just add French, German, and Estonian porn. Extra points if it's the politicians fucking over their middle classes -- it'd be a pornumentary. Heck, I'll licence the content to Netflix at a loss.
French will not be the most spoken language in the world 2050, can you say Mandarin?
Seriously, what's an even playing field? Being forced to host particular content? Netflix is attempting to make the most money, this means appealing to the most people in order to get more service signups. If european content is what european consumers want; I would imagine the netflix would have taken this into account and adapted to make more money in those markets. Instead, there's a EU decision to force netflix to run this content. This is more a fear of losing their culture rather than a market based decision. Disguising it as evening the playing field is a joke.
Eat sleep die
Ever since the Soviet Union fell apart we no longer have any government in the world that supports basic human freedoms. No person should be forced to something that they do not wish to do only for the purpose of another person's wants. If you look at every government today all you see is the Soviet Union in miniature. None will go as far as their socialist and communist neighbors, or so they think to themselves. But in fact they are. Governments are enslaving their populations more and more each day by using fear. Fear of terrorism. Fear of invasion. Fear of (insert one of a hundred things that people fear).
Until the people start standing up and putting down these governments it will only get worse.
So remember, when voting, vote "Military Coup"! At lease in the U.S.
All you'll see is piracy... which still exists because content providers doesn't have the same catalogs as in the US... It's often very hard to get a show legitimately..
Personally, I gave up piracy years ago, when Netflix and HBO became available in Europe. But if the catalog was to shrink or just not expand dramatically, there is no stopping piracy... People aren't going to buy DVDs...
Then tell the French government to fuck off.
Eh, here, I'll do it for you.
Hey yoh, French Government, Fuck Off. You're irrelevant, this kind of "oh my gosh, gasp, our own people aren't smart or talented enough to do this on their own, so fuck it, let's make others smarter and more talented than us into our slaves."
Slavery is forbidden France, go play with matches and short fused dynamite clamped between your legs, we don't need you anymore.
most of us intelligent humans have forsaken all the pay sites and are watching streaming live for free. Netflix and Amazon (who I subscribe to), will go down hard .
This is ridiculous, we subscribers will have to pay more - and I for one - won't. So BOO HOO
It is ludicrous to predict the future based on growth rates. For example the growth rate of telephone operator jobs in the 1920's would lead to all of us in that position today. Even the growth rate of bread mold indicates that the mold will consume the earth shortly. So there is a spike of population growth in Africa (probably in response to the many dearth caused by civil wars and aids there). Doesn't predict anything about French usage in 2050. In mathematical terms derivatives are noisy.
Wouldn't it just be easier to block those countries?
Overheard in heaven: "Tell you what, pops - either go yourself or send spooky-boy this time. I still can't eat peanuts without using a spoon."
At the bottom of the
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?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
It's a comic that sells issues by whipping up anti EU hysteria with false claims like the EU legislating how bent a banana can be.
Look if you think 3 men and a baby came first I have a news for you: there was already a french film with that story 2 years before. Need I mention Leon ? And many other films ? There is already a lot of those film, so the 20% will not be hard to fill. The problem is, culture is not always the cheapest. The company like netflix would rather sell what has to most profit, in bulk, and the expanse of culture. Result : local film industry get shafted because they can never get the rapport price/quality hollywood get due to bulk sales and you get the bland fucking slope we get served remark after reboot. That is why many country impose a minimum of home made film as to preserve their own culture. You may not like it and prefer the mass-bland-average bulk shit which get sold, but I and many other people prefer diversity even if we have to pay a little bit more for it.
FUCK THE EU!
God created "French" as a joke language on the celestial equivalent of "The Onion".
Unfortunately for the French people they didn't realize it was a parody and adopted it as their own language.
I love watching foreign TV programmes and films. Of course I also like watching British films as well but there is something special about German, French and Scandinavian TV programmes and films. I've been watching a lot of WW2 films recently and seeing films made by the Polish, the Danish, the Finnish, the French and the Germans really puts things into a different perspective especially when compared with the jingoistic rubbish that comes out of Hollywood sometimes. I'm fed up of being told how the USA won the war for us. The only thing I hate about foreign TV and films is when they are dubbed rather than subtitled. When will people learn that dubbing is the worst thing you can possibly do?
If Europe is going to FORCE businesses to carry their content, they are implying people don't want to watch European content on their own.
Even if that is mostly false, that is the message they are sending.
If people wanted to watch European content, why would the governments force businesses to carry it? Wouldn't people pay money to watch it? Why would Netflix turn away people's money to watch European content if they were pushing for it?
The problem with quotas is they imply people wouldn't normally prefer whatever is being pushed.
If they want to make money in the regions they should at least offer the choice of stuff other than American mass culture - pple need their own stories.
Find the cheapest French content, steam it at abysmally low quality and charge 10x for it.
Love the double standards from all the commenters saying Europe should suck it up and create it's own competitive industry.
I guess we can use the same argument now when Americans whine about losing all their tech jobs and manufacturing jobs. Suck it up, just work cheaper and you can create a competitive industry.