The European Commission (EC) is to oblige on-demand services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime to ensure they offer a minimum 20 per cent share of European content.
The change, which was announced in the EC’s revised ‘Audiovisual Media Services Directive’, is being made to ensure the services are bound by the same rules as linear channels, creating a ‘fairer environment’ for all players.
The directive stated that services must ‘reserve at least 20 per cent share for European works in their catalogues and to ensure adequate prominence of such works’.
Currently, European TV broadcasters invest around 20 per cent of their revenues in original content, compared to less than one per cent for on-demand providers.
The EC has also said that EU member states will be able to ask on-demand services to contribute financially to European content creation.
The Commission stated that these obligations will not apply to players with ‘no significant presence on the market’, or companies with a low turnover.
Obligations may also be waived on some services where imposing them would be ‘impracticable or unjustified by reason of the nature or theme of the on-demand audiovisual media services’.
