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?
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?
... 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.
They are, they just need the money.
Achille Talon
Hop!
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.
There is a very large amount of French TV and movies. All they have to do is have the desire to show them and to negotiate with the rights holders to do so.
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.
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.
I don't understand why people confuse Slashdot for Reddit.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
"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."
GOD will punish the whole USA if Clinton wins. She serves the DEVIL. Yes, Lucifer himself is her master.
Wait. She works for Ted Cruz? Now I'm *really* confused.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
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.
Does the law say it has to be new or expensive french content?
Of course we are talking about France, the country that even wants it's scientists to stop using scientific terms/words that were not made up by French nationals.
That's what I don't understand about America, how on Earth have you gotten in to a situation where these two are your choices to run a superpower? The next few years are going to be pretty bad for the world, I'm just happy to be in a country that doesn't even show on most American maps!
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"?
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.
US maps don't like islands. That's why Hawaii is always in Mexico. So where are you? Seychelles? Fiji? NZ? Africa?
Better be on the southern hemisphere. My calculations are that the southern hemisphere will mostly survive a nuclear war. The fallout will be mostly gone by the time it passes the equator, and most of the nukes are aimed at Russia or the US, leaving few direct strikes on the southern hemisphere.
Learn to love Alaska
Yep, hunkering down in NZ. Hoping the fallout won't reach this far and there's no reason to nuke us, our job in wars is mainly just to patch people up. ;-)
P.S. I'm really worried about the US if you don't show Africa on your maps
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.
Off topic much?
Note that the rights holders will have a moderately enormous advantage in those negotiations, since the law will require that 20%, so if they insist on a huge pricetag, well, you still have to do 20%, even if the 20% costs more than the other 80%....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
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
The standard US map centers on the US, and to save space, fitting onto a letter (What's A4? Isn't that a car?) sized piece of paper, often shows North and South America, with nothing else, or you just get the USA only maps. Only rarely do you see a world map in the US, and those don't depict the world very well. Last one I saw was in a tourist area, and still listed the USSR, many years after the fall.
I moved out of the US, for the reason that I saw in the election cycle 8 years ago that Trump was an inevitability, not an aberration. The campaigning around Obama was very hateful, and the number of people who worshiped the hate indicated it was quite popular.
Learn to love Alaska
And Trump will punish the whole USA if Trump wins, as he *is* the devil. So do you want to vote for the devil himself, or a servant of the devil? Damned if you do...
Learn to love Alaska
Add some gratuitously naked French chicks, and you've made a mainstream French film.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
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...
Hell at least we can still draw cartoons of mohamed
So has it come to the point where the US draws consolation from still being still not as bad as some middle-eastern Shithole?
Or were you referring to France?
No, it's just that in the US, freedom of expression is something we culturally value far more than Europe does. You can express something no matter how backwards the rest of us think it is. For example, in the US, most of us hate communism, fascism, and wahhabism, but, people are allowed to glorify them if they want, or denigrate them if they want, and you won't risk persecution.
In Europe on the other hand, glorifying fascism can often land you in jail, while denigrating wahhabism can in many cases be considered a hate crime and also land you in jail.
What fucking map have you seen with north and s America and not the rest of the world ?
Every wall-map up in public school. Maybe they couldn't afford the world map, but those are left to tiny representation in textbooks, where you can't read any of the country names.
America only maps make sense.
I wasn't talking about America-only maps. I was talking about international maps where "international" doesn't include the whole world. Outside the US, I see actual world maps much more often than I did inside the US.
Learn to love Alaska
ORLY? Wasn't the FBI created to hunt communists? Freedom of expression my arse.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Look, isn't god supposed to have this plan? So if Clinton wins it's his fault. Maybe he will have to send himself to be sacrificed to himself to save us from himself again.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Maybe it was a full world map and somebody tore it as they were putting up?
At the bottom of the
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.
Not so much off topic as off his head.
Film the French getting fucked and stream this on Netflix!!!!
http://www.explicite-art.com/tour/
WTF?
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=french+movies
ORLY? Wasn't the FBI created to hunt communists? Freedom of expression my arse.
In the past, America persecuted and arrested people for being communists. But those laws were declared unconstitutional, and we don't do that anymore. If you want to drag up stuff from the past, Europe looks a lot worse than America, so you shouldn't go there. You should criticise America for what it is, not what it was.
In other news, this week a German citizen was threatened with arrest for reading a poem.
What fucking map have you seen with north and s America and not the rest of the world ?
Probably a map of the western hemisphere, which would neatly explain why things were "cut off."
To the jackass who thinks this is some kind of americacentric view, please rest assured that we do have maps of the rest of the world, and show them to our school children regularly. That's the fun thing about maps: you use different maps for different purposes. We also have running water, indoor plumbing, and some guy down the road has a magic moving picture box in his home that occasionally shows us views off far of Europe, Africa, and other exotic locales.
What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
Add some gratuitously naked French chicks, and you've made a mainstream French film.
I think I'm going to be browsing the French content on Netflix real soon.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Add some gratuitously naked French chicks, and you've made a mainstream French film.
Bare Naked Ladies ? They're CANADIAN. . . .not French (grin)
Even better, the frogs love it when you speak their language badly.
We should get some Cajuns to make content for France as well. Perhaps attempt to teach the French to cook, they will love that.
Broadcast middle school French class plays and call it a day.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Thank you! So much of the handwringing about who ends up being the President of the United States is based on an false understanding of how the office of the President even works. From some comments I've read, you'd think that once Trump got in office there would immediately be pogroms against Muslims, we'd be rounding up every vaguely Mexican seeming person we could find and unceremoniously tossing them over the wall. All women will be required to quit their jobs and go back to the kitchen, and rape will not only be legalized but encouraged!
Jesus fucking Christ people, get a grip. Does Hillary suck? Yep, but she won't cause mass havoc and destruction. Does Trump suck? Kinda, but he won't bring about the anti-Feminist apocalypse (unfortunately).
God damned whining Progressive retards need to come back to reality. Comrade Bernie can't save the world, Crooked Hillary would just be a slightly worse Obama (you could expect relations between the sexes to deteriorate much like race relations have under Obama though) and Madman Trump won't launch nuclear weapons at ISIS, genocide Muslims or whatever other outlandish fears people seem to have about him.
If anything, especially if you think Congress is full of wankers, Trump would be the only one who would be able to say "Congress, you're fired" with a reasonable expectation of having the voting population actually vote the losers out of office. And that kind of directness is exactly why people like Trump. The whole American political system is so deeply lodged up its own ass and everything they do and say is calculated and focus grouped to the point where it barely even approximates normal human communication. So when someone is daring to call bullshit on these assholes, even if he's a massive asshole himself, people are attracted to it. /end screed
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.
Add some gratuitously naked French chicks
I'm suddenly interested in watching it, not for the other stuff though....
I'm afraid the plan could include the government we deserve ...
We had the holocaust but you had the genocides of countless native nations.
What we did to the native Americans is nothing compared to what you Europeans did to the Neanderthals.
New Top Gear on Netflix is probably going to be awesome.
Oh, there's a third one? I was going to give the new BBC show a chance, and I'm looking forward to seeking Clarkson's new vehicle (accidental pun, but fuck it) on Amazon Prime. Will wait and see what Netflix launch, their UK offering just isn't worth the subscription fee.
Probably were free from another school or library. Educational material was so bad, the teachers spent more time correcting errors than teaching. "Oh, and if you see 'Königsberg' on your map, that's been called "Kaliningrad for about 100 years" Maybe because so many of the world maps were wrong, they didn't bother posting them.
Learn to love Alaska
Umm...in case you forgot, Europe did the natives MUCH worse than the US did prior to it even existing, namely the destruction of the Aztec and Inca empires via enslavement, disease, and "convert to christianity or die" terms. The US killed them and forced them off of their land, yes, but we didn't commit any form of genocide or enslavement.
But since you asked, let's go on: Even more recent than the holocaust was mass european colonialism that caused a lot of African, Middle-Eastern, and Asian countries to hate the west, which was not only recent but spans at least 400 years. And not only did you start the second world war, but the first one as well, communism, numerous inquisitions, crusades, and the dark ages. There's a lot more I can't think of at the moment or are somewhat localized (i.e the reign of terror) but Europe doesn't have a peaceful past at all, rather this "second renaissance" is only a recent thing, and may end soon thanks to at least 25% of the European population voting for self admitted fascists into office (and no, Trump doesn't even begin to qualify as fascist, even if he does get elected.)
Yet somehow you guys have yourselves convinced that, aside from the holocaust, you've never done any harm to anybody, and when it comes to politics often identify yourselves as "the rest of the world" when you compare yourselves to the US. That probably comes from the fact that you've colonized most of it and installed your own culture, while you just assume that everybody else thinks the same as you, even though they actually don't. Try reading wikipedia in non-european languages; you'll find that most of the world which doesn't speak a European language doesn't think anything like you when it comes to politics.
And I'm not hating on Europeans just to hate on Europeans. Lots of countries are guilty of similar crimes. However, you had to ask, so I told.
We had these things called globes...
If only there were other French speaking markets that produce shows.
I'm sure the Frogs will be happy listening to the 'French' spoken in Quebec.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
The language you are thinking of is 'Cantonese' not 'Mandarin'.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Because clearly something that happened 108 years ago is the same thing as things are now.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Two choices? People believing there are only two choices is part of the problem. In the last two presidential elections, there were at least six choices for president.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
If people would stop viewing this as one vs the other, maybe things could be improved.
There are currently 11 parties in the running for the US elections:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
but, because of the media blackout of all but the top two, everyone assumes it is D vs R.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
You got me...thanks, now I'm going to lose my job...
FYI, that is a goatse link.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?