Allowing streaming between borders will result in films ‘aiming for lowest common denominator of human experience’
The core argument of “it’ll reduce the quality of films” seems to be nonsense. Unless I’m missing a crucial piece of context here. Filmmakers are already heavily incentivized to target the lowest common denominator. Today their film can be licensed to multiple distributors, one or more in each country. So, if they wanted to make as much return as possible, they’re going to target as wide as audience as possible.
What this would do is hurt the local distributors in those countries. Films would be licensed to companies who have a strong presence in all of the affected countries, instead of many distributors that are only prevalent in one. I assume this would lead to Netflix and Amazon getting the largest share.
I’d be interested if people in Europe find the current system to be a significant hassle or not.
I’d be interested if people in Europe find the current system to be a significant hassle or not.
It just means people pirate. This really should’ve been solved some time ago. A TV show being accessible does not inherently mean that it must be streamed, it could be a digital download. This is why a Steam storefront-type setup should exist for TV with no blocks. You can buy any TV show you like, £10-15 a season (prices could vary obviously) and it’s yours. Netflix and Amazon and Disney etc would exist alongside it as streamers. Or the EU should’ve thought about a pan-european streaming service.
The European Parliament should’ve just alternatively done this.
If you refuse to make your TV show legally accessible either to stream or to download for a certain country, piracy of that show within that country should be legal
Ah thanks for the context! I was thinking this might be the case.
Interesting point on digital downloads. I hadn’t thought of that aspect.
Would you say you’d be in support of legislation that’s something along the lines of what’s being proposed?
I would support the end of all geoblocks, or the legalisation of piracy for shows unaccessible to particular countries (for the citizens within)
Duller & less imaginative than they are currently? I fucking doubt that.
For anyone that hasn’t read, or doesn’t understand the article, the geo block ban the EU is proposing is aimed at broadcasters who are the primary buyers of content. Geo-blocking means that France Télévisions only serves a French audience, while ZDF serves German… BBC would be a more obvious example for English speaks, but, Brexit.
This ban would consolidate Europe into a single media market and would likely result in Germany and France controlling the a large portion of the content the rest of Europe views.
Additionally, a filmmaker can sell rights to something multiple times if there is interest in each market. This allows for larger budgets than you could afford if only sold once.
The European market is a bit archaic, and the filmmakers concerns are self serving, but consolidation around a few central players doesn’t seem likely to improve quality.
I’ve heard enough Canadians talk about their “second amendment right” to handguns to know there are deeper societal issues that are at risk as well.
The world is already somewhat ‘consolidated’ right now via services like Netflix, Hulu/Apple, Amazon content that mostly drops everything they make or commission internationally on day 1.
The point is that this all derives from a fundamentally archaic worldview. It’s utterly absurd that I can’t legally purchase or stream shows like Dummedag (an example) because I don’t live in Norway. My only option in many cases is piracy. Do some of these studios not want people to purchase their content?
Here’s my solution to this, the EU should’ve said: If you refuse to make your TV show legally accessible either to stream or to download for a certain country, piracy of that show within that country should be legal.
