“Quotas obligating Netflix, Amazon and other streaming services operating in the European Union to dedicate at least 30% of their on-demand catalogs to local content are set to become enshrined in law soon,” Nick Vivarelli reports for Variety. “Roberto Viola, head of the European Commission department that regulates communications networks, content and technology, said the new rules, which will also demand visibility and prominence of European product on streamers, are on track to be approved in December. ‘We just need the final vote, but it’s a mere formality,’ he told Variety at the Venice Film Festival.”
“Netflix, Amazon and other 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,” Vivarelli reports. “Netflix tried unsuccessfully to fight the German surcharge in court.”
Vivarelli reports, “Viola said that, starting in December, 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%.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, etc. can simply commission a boat load of crap “documentaries” made on the cheap that nobody besides the producer and his/her parents will ever watch and throw them into the catalog until the magical percentage is met. Voilà!
