Exploring the Audiovisual Media Service Directive, Content Quotas & Prominence

Sandra Becker (Utrecht University) and Berber Hagedoorn (University of Groningen)

This paper critically analyzes the policy documents and production data for local Dutch VOD content by international (Netflix, Amazon) and national streaming services (commercial [Videoland] as well as PSB [NPO Start]) from Netflix’s launch in the Netherlands in September 2013 until late 2023, before the regulation on the Dutch quota became effective. Since January 1, 2024, the Dutch content quota requires streaming services with a revenue of more than 10 million euros to invest 5% of their annual turnover in Dutch content production. This regulation is a follow-up to the 30% quota for local audiovisual content production by the EU’s revised Audiovisual Media Service Directive (AVMSD) for US streaming giant Netflix in Fall 2018. Several European countries implemented production quotas for tax revenues by international streaming services, including France (2009), Germany (2014), Italy (2018), Belgium (2019/2021), Poland (2020), and Italy (2018).

Our paper explores the Netherlands as both a small production country and “the ‘country of origin’ to several multinational VOD services, including Netflix” (Idiz et al. 2021, 426). It contextualizes the Dutch quota in recent changes in European audiovisual media policy, the European VOD market, and trends in diversity and inclusion in Dutch VOD productions from 2013-2023. By looking beyond the Dutch quota, our conclusions give insight into the state of Dutch VOD content production, actual production numbers per production type (series and films) and genre from 2013-2023, and representation of Dutch socio-cultural diversity in VOD productions for the Dutch market. In the presentation, we will share first findings from our ongoing research project.

Bios

Sandra Becker is a lecturer in Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her research interests include the dynamics of on and off-screen representation of gender and diversity, drama TV series (from Quality TV to streaming), and television as a medium in transition.

Berber Hagedoorn is Assistant Professor in Media Studies & Audiovisual Culture at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Her research interests revolve around screen cultures (representations and crossmedia storytelling practices) and audiovisual cultural memory in Europe. She is a Board Member of the EUscreen Foundation.

Alexa Scarlata (RMIT University)

Over the last decade, smart TVs – internet-connected TV sets in which content is delivered through apps – have become the norm in consumer electronics markets. These increasingly convergent devices come equipped with voice assistants, search engines, and payment gateways. The smart TV operating system and/or manufacturer controls automated advertising, data capture, algorithmic discrimination, the integration of search results and recommendations, and the positioning/pre-installation of apps on the home screen. Users now require complex skills to get the most out of smart TV interfaces that are designed to nudge them towards particular content or services (generally large US-based apps capable of executing high-priced global deals for prominent placement) and away from others.  

Regulators in several national contexts have recently investigated and responded to the “prominence problem” facing local apps within smart TV interfaces. This presentation chronicles the Australian response to this challenge: the federal government’s election promise to legislate a prominence framework, the proposals put on the table, the hyperbolic dispute that played out between key stakeholders and advocates in the press, and the resulting Bill now making its way through Parliament. To inform this process, our team at RMIT (led by Associate Professor Ramon Lobato) undertook independent research that included the detailed analysis of connected TV devices, their interfaces, and their operating systems, and a nationally representative panel survey about smart TV ownership and user behaviour. Combining these insights about what smart TVs are doing and how consumers are using them, we effectively advocate for policy intervention that levels the playing field for local apps while respecting user autonomy and minimising market distortion.

Bio

Alexa Scarlata is a Research Fellow in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia). With qualifications in law and global media communications, she studies the dynamics of online TV, the resulting impact on local production, the implications of the platform ecosystem enabled by smart TVs, and the subsequent development of media policy in these areas. Alexa has a monograph under contract with Routledge, serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Digital Media and Policy, and has published in Continuum, Critical Studies in Television, and Media International Australia.