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A proposal has been made by the European Commission requiring streaming services to make sure 20% of their libraries consist of European content.
The Audiovisual Media Services Directive would also mean streaming services having to promote European titles prominently on the home page as part of the European Union’s push towards a “digital single market” – a plan to remove existing online barriers that “mean citizens miss out on goods and services, internet companies and start-ups have their horizons limited, and businesses and governments cannot fully benefit from digital tools”.
Traditional broadcasters are currently required to devote half of their programming to European content and it’s felt online streaming services should have to do the same, given the shift towards online viewing. It’s hoped this will increase investment in European TV and film production, and help local economies.
The first European Netflix original series, Marseille, only came out last month, with more planned in Spain, Italy and Germany. The Crown, filmed in England, comes out in November. But the company feels having a quota may cause the quality of content to drop due to buying lower-quality programmes in order to simply meet requirements.
“Our members around the world love European programming, that’s why our investment in European programming, including Netflix original titles created in Europe, is growing,” Netflix said in a statement.
“We appreciate the commission’s objective to have European production flourish, however the proposed measures won’t actually achieve that.”
Amazon has not yet put out a statement, which might be because the UK and Germany are currently the only countries Prime Video operates in.
The directive will now go before the European Parliament.
