THE EUROPEAN UNION will require that streaming giants like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix stock their libraries with at least 30% of local content by the end of this year.
According to a Variety report, the new rules, which are on track to be approved in December, will also require visibility and prominence of European product in the on-demand catalogs.
Streamers will be required to fund TV series and films produced in Europe by commissioning content, acquiring it, or paying into national film funds through a small surcharge added to their subscription fee, something which is already happening in Germany, continues the report. Netflix tried unsuccessfully to fight the German surcharge in court.
The report quotes Roberto Viola, head of the European Commission department that regulates communications networks, content and technology, who said that the EU’s 28 member states would have 20 months to apply these new norms and that countries “could choose to raise the quota from the 30% minimum to 40%.” EU nations can each choose whether the 30% includes sub-quotas on original productions in their countries and whether they want to follow the German model of adding a small surcharge on streamer subscription fees to support the national production fund.
