European parliament passes 30% local quota
Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube & Facebook must all offer 30% Euro-made content within 2 years.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under Streaming
The European Parliament has now approved new rules for a 30% European content quota for video on demand services including Netflix and Amazon Prime, as well as YouTube and Facebook.
“Video-on-demand platforms are also asked to contribute to the development of European audiovisual productions, either by investing directly in content or by contributing to national funds,” said the European Parliament in a statement.
“The level of contribution in each country should be proportional to their on-demand revenues in that country – member states where they are established or member states where they target the audience wholly or mostly.”
The updated rules include enhanced protection of minors from violence, hatred, terrorism and harmful advertising, requiring platforms to react quickly” when content is reported. They must create “a transparent, easy-to-use and effective mechanism to allow users to report or flag content.”
The new law also includes strict rules on advertising and product placement in children’s TV and content available on VOD platforms.
In primetime, between 6pm and midnight, ads can only take up 20% of time.
The deal still needs to be formally approved by the Council of EU ministers before the revised law can come into force. Thereafter they need to be implemented within 2 years.
In Australia industry has also been pressuring for a similar local content quota to apply to services such as Netflix, Stan & Amazon.
Screen Producers Australia CEO Matthew Deaner has previously said, “The EU Parliament has recognised the need for a level playing field where both broadcast media and online streaming services are regulated similarly. A level playing field is good for businesses, audiences and industry.”
Source: TBI
4 Responses
It depends on your point of view I guess but the European Parliament is doing what it does best, protecting European industry and claiming more subsidy and tax revenue from foreign companies, something the EEC has survived on with for many decades. I doubt whether this will bother Netflix though as it is already increasing its foreign language content and presumably value adds with its global distribution rights.
It would be great for the VPN business and the overseas arms of the streamers if this applied in Australia.
Applies to Facebook and YouTube too? Only way I can see this being enforceable is by removing access to overseas content to stay inline with the quota.
I expect it is for their original programming, not user created clips.