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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

#71

Post by mrep »

seszett wrote: post #50
Bizarro wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given a choice of dystopias, I would also prefer to avoid the one where "the market" decides what I should or shouldn't watch. You really want the state deciding what you watch?

I'd prefer the state forcing companies to provide the widest possible range of choices to me, which is the case here.

Luxembourg, with their population of 590,667 people produced 5 movies in 2016 according to this source [0]. Extrapolating that production rate out 50 years gives them a whopping 250 total movies meaning Netflix could have a max possible of 833 movies assuming they leased every single one. How is that choice?

[0]: https://www.the-numbers.com/Luxembourg/movies/year/2016

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

#72

Post by kevincox »

One interesting way to look at it is if some service wanted to provide access to all content they could only do this in countries which produce 30% or more of all content globally. I would assume that this means that no country in the EU would be able to access all US content.

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

#73

Post by gonvaled »

bluGill wrote: post #65
FearNotDaniel wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if the demand were high Culture is not just about satisfying demands, it's also about giving people the opportunity to stumble across things they weren't even looking for, and so enrich themselves in unexpected ways. As a teenager I had no particular desire to go looking for ancient harpsichord music, difficult jazz, sombre poetry, magnificent choral worship or even five-minute recordings of nothing but church bell…

You have just made the opposite point you wanted to: by requiring 30% local culture you have prevented someone from stumbling across a different non-local culture, simply because the math cannot work out without censoring something else.

Nice utopia you are describing. The reality is that without rules, neither the 30% local culture nor the non-local culture gets offered.

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

#74

Post by ethbro »

FearNotDaniel wrote: post #53
Bizarro wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given a choice of dystopias, I would also prefer to avoid the one where "the market" decides what I should or shouldn't watch. You really want the state deciding what you watch?

No, I want the state deciding that people with minority interests still have the possibility of watching what they want alongside all the more commercial offerings. And I want the state providing those who don't think they like those minority offerings with an opportunity to experience them and be pleasantly surprised.

Aka striving for "equality of opportunity, not outcome"

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

#75

Post by pbhjpbhj »

akuji1993 wrote: post #11

The 30% quota is ridiculous. What this will lead to is either providers shutting down the service for that country or just buy the cheapest, most available content they can get from some indie movie publishers and pushing it in one carousel on their site. This will not lead to bigger local productions or a bigger support for local film makers...

Well I for one am looking forward to hearing of the production of the 200 episodes of "Norwegian log pile drying" and such (eg https://www.netflix.com/title/80119345 ?).

Presumably that's what will happen -- unless they mandate hours viewed and then we in the UK will have to watch an hour of "puddle drying in Stratham" before we can watch a foreign movie.

Of course the metric could be "catalogue hours", in which case one 500 hour showing of "Silence, a tribute to John Cage" might satisfy the requirement.

TL;DR how will they define the quota, what constitutes a TV programme.

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

#76

Post by mrep »

jstanley wrote: post #61

How exactly is it going to be possible to make sure that 30% of the catalogue comes from the country the customer lives in? If they provide service in more than 3 countries (and, they do) then it is a mathematical impossibility to meet that limit in every single country. I don't get it.

From the article "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".

Presumably, that means they would only have to have 30% of content be from one's own country, the rest can be from anywhere.

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

#77

Post by wukerplank »

julesie wrote: post #64
wukerplank wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 30% of movies in Indiana need to be created in Indiana Seems like the media production is pretty centralized in the US. It's hard to compare with Europe, where most nations have different languages, their own TV stations (producing their own content) and their own funds to support productions of movies. It would be a shame if these biotopes of media production would get dried out because of US monopolies. At least…

But the size of EU member states varies drastically. Germany is home to 83,000,000 people, Malta just over 440,000. Is the EU suggesting that Malta's population should only be able to stream content 2x the volume of its domestic content output? And that's assuming the likes of Netflix was able to hoover up all of that domestic output which seems untenable.

Yes, and my guess is that Malta will implement the law differently from what the EU proposes.

[Edited to fix typo.]

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

#78

Post by towb »

> 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

Not possible and for sure nothing people even want. We have two or three channels in Sweden that makes original content that could go up on Netflix. And they don't really have more than one or two series (10 episodes max) running at a time per season. Two of the channels have their own streaming service (C-More, Viaplay), the third is public service who also puts it up there (SVT Play) for a good long time.

There is plenty of really bad content that the tv channels can sell to Netflix though. A good way for a traditional tv company to stay alive a bit longer. But then there's HBO and others that needs exclusive rights to the content so probably still not possible.

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

#79

Post by r_smart »

Zenst wrote: post #19

So the prospect of shoestring country news channels or 24/7 streaming of a local clocktower as way to `statisticaly` claim compliance, cannot be ruled out. So this regional 30% could be just as riveting as a watching a chimney stack. Though may work in parts of Italy.

I, for one, welcome a future of 24/7 streaming of yule logs.

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

#80

Post by wink »

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 don't think I've ever watched 30% locally produced TV content or movies in my entire life. (really can't tell for music - maybe that works out, but also usually not, per year)

Not that I care a big time, but I'd be on board with a 10% quota, but in general I don't really like the idea either.

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