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EU to move ahead with cultural quotas for streaming services

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Re: EU to move ahead with cultural quotas for streaming services

#201

Post by dragandj »

coldtea wrote: post #41
comboy wrote: post #3

> So the move — which will probably draw loud and hair-raising screams from U.S. commentators — is, nonetheless, A Good Thing. I'm in EU. A Good Thing is letting me watch whatever the fuck I want. It's a real dystopia if the state decides which movies you should or shouldn't watch.

I'm also in EU. An Even Better Thing is to not have whole generations conditioned from childhood (by a system that distributes predominantly Hollywood movies for them to watch), to believe that those are "whatever the fuck" they actually want as free agents to watch. An Even Better Thing is to introduce people to multiple cinematic cultures (and multiple cultures in general), not just the global monoculture that push…

But Netflix or any other streaming provider does not take public space. It is a private, paid service. The existence of Netflix does not stop any European company from offering its own private distribution service with exclusively EU content, or Indian content, or whatever content they think people will pay them to offer. Hell, the existence of Netflix even does not stop EU from creating a publicly funded streaming service... but anyone want to guess how watchable that would be?

Re: EU to move ahead with cultural quotas for streaming services

#202

Post by Broken_Hippo »

kgwgk wrote: post #196
Fnoord wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not as if Netflix is the creme de la creme of cinema. Netflix already sucks outside the US. Outside the US, there's far less content, and there is either way a lot of filler content anyway. What is going to happen is that Netflix will get the rights to stream (hopefully quality) local movies and series. That's gonna differ per country in EU. For example, some movies get broadcasted once or twice on public TV and…

> Netflix can acquire them [reasonably] cheap Why would the seller sell cheap, knowing that the buyer is forced by law to buy?

Not every place would bother making tons of money off of them because they'd rather have the programming out there. I'm going to guess many weren't making money anyway, since they were only shown once or twice on broadcast television. And overall, some of it might be a bonus for the production of new stuff.

Re: EU to move ahead with cultural quotas for streaming services

#203

Post by CM30 »

Doesn't something like this already happen with TV shows in Canada? I recall quite a few unpopular TV shows (like Johnny Test) basically kept running purely because of some Canadian TV show quota the country had going, despite people's reactions to them being generally meh at best.

Either way, it's not a great idea, because... well, some countries simply make more/better shows than others. It's like in any other area of business, where some countries more representation in each industry, like how America's done well with films and tech because of Hollywood and Silicon Valley. All this sort of setup does is encourage streaming services to run poor quality, disliked shows to fill a quota at the expense of what's actually best or most appreciated by its audience.

Re: EU to move ahead with cultural quotas for streaming services

#206

Post by Broken_Hippo »

jrockway wrote: post #47
phyller wrote: post #7

> The proposals will require that streaming services give over at least 30% of their on-demand catalogues to original productions made in each EU country where a service is provided (individual EU Member States could choose to set the content bar even higher, at 40%) 30% for each country seems really high to me. As usual for regulation, there will likely be high unintended consequences. While in the US and elsewhere…

Does the law mandate that the movies be good? Because you can just set up a webcam, chunk it into 2 hour pieces, and call it a movie.

Um. That's already a part of the television culture in some places. Norway has slow tv. I don't watch it, but some folks out there do.

https://www.visitnorway.com/media/news-from-norway/finally-t...

Re: EU to move ahead with cultural quotas for streaming services

#207

Post by GhostVII »

Sounds like the kind of pointless law that streaming services can easily get around by just buying the rights to super cheap movies from the country. Although apparently "streaming services will also have to ensure visibility and prominence for local content," not sure how that will be enforced.

Re: EU to move ahead with cultural quotas for streaming services

#208

Post by jnurmine »

adventured wrote: post #133
pluma wrote: post #112

I'd be fine with "30% from any country in the EU", but "30% from my country" is torture. I mean, have you even seen what movies Germany produces? If I could stand any of that rubbish, I'd be watching cable TV, not Netflix.

Out of curiosity as an American looking to learn more about European cinema, which countries in continental Europe would you say produce the best movies?

Frankly, I don't know which ones produce the best movies in general as this is somewhat subjective. There are gems from all countries and often there is a co-operation between countries.

However, since I especially like Swedish crime drama, I can give you specific recommendations of crime drama movies and TV-series from Sweden and other countries.

  * Snabba Cash I, II, III ("Easy Money" I, II, III)
  * Wallander (yeah, the original Swedish one - there are many)
  * Beck (there are many)
  * Jägarna ("The Hunters", there's two)
  * Midnight Sun ("Midnattssol"; TV series taking place in Lappland)
The latter is a French-Swedish production which is, I think, a good example of what the directive of the article intends to create more.

In addition to watching a crime drama of the kind which you might not have not seen, you get to sight-see places as they are. I especially liked the visual appearance of The Midnattssol since it takes place in Lappland, which I think is beautiful in a rugged way.

Also, you may have seen Hollywood remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. There's a Swedish original which can be interesting to watch.

A Swedish-Danish series called "The Bridge" (Bro) is very good, but I have not seen it.

An Italian (actually Italian-German) series called "Gomorrah" is very good too, I heard. I have not seen that either, though.

I have yet to fully explore all the crime drama from other European countries; I've seen some Finnish ones (like "Vares") and they were OK too.

Hope this helps.

Edit: forgot Snabba Cash III!

Re: EU to move ahead with cultural quotas for streaming services

#209

Post by GhostVII »

bluGill wrote: post #55
julesie wrote: post #9

How can this work in practice? Can the 30% be from any EU country? I'm Irish, we don't produce that much stuff. If it has to represent 30% of the catalogue, that catalogue is going to have to shrink massively.

It can't work mathematically unless it is from any EU country. There are more than 3 EU countries, which means that eventually you will get some great content from some other country that you are not allowed to access. That is 30% Irish, 30% French, 30% German, and 30% Italian content already doesn't add up, meaning some things that you personally might want from a different country are on the list of things you are…

I interpreted it as saying that, if you are in a specific European country, 30% of the content must be from that country you are in.

Re: EU to move ahead with cultural quotas for streaming services

#210

Post by akie »

tomjen3 wrote: post #147
michaelt wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protectionism is bad in all its forms. I read a book once that made an interesting point: 1. English-language films make more money than French-language films because there are more English speakers than French speakers. 2. Because of this, an English-language film can profitably have a bigger budget, allowing better production values. 3. Once a film has been produced, the rights will get sold in every foreign market…

The obvious solution is to make a movie in France in English.

That's a stupid solution.
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