Netflix, Amazon face Euro quota

The European Commission (EC) has confirmed its plans to ensure that at least 20% of the content that streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon offer their European subscribers is made in the region.

Under the proposals outlined by the EC this morning, individual European Union member states will also be pressed to force on-demand services to invest in European film and TV series.

The plans – first mooted last week – are part of the EC’s bid to create a digital single market across the continent under its Audiovisual Media Services directive, a move that has sparked widespread debate in the television industry.

“Overall, strengthening the promotion of European works for on-demand services will lead to a broader and more diverse offer for Europeans,” the EC said today. “This will have a positive impact on cultural diversity and bring more opportunities for European creators.”

The EC’s other proposals include:

• Measures for online platforms such as YouTube to do more to protect minors from violent and harmful video content.
• A call for new symbols or phrases to warn viewers of potentially harmful content.
• A move to give broadcasters more flexibility over when they show adverts.

EU rules already oblige broadcasters to invest around 20% of their revenue into making or commissioning original content and to spend around 50% of their time airing European programmes.

The EC’s new proposals were brought about due to the surge in the number of viewers watching content on VoD services, with the organisation believing streamers should not be exempt from the rules.

The European Parliament and Council must approve the motion before it can be greenlit.

Streamers could likely get around the proposed regulations by loading up their libraries with lesser-watched and cheaper European content.

Compact Media CEO David Johnson said the announcement “raised some issues.”

“While the quota proposal may deliver more investment into European content that could result in further growth, it could also end up being a diversion with the purchase of cheap content merely to meet the quota requirements, which is not good for anyone,” he continued.

“For the benefit of the consumer and the European content industry, any investment in European content must be an investment in good content, rather than just a tick-box exercise just to qualify as European.

“We have had enough Euro-pudding content in the past where producers have compromised their vision to pick up investment or to qualify as European and the result has been unwatchable rather than unmissable.”