EXCLUSIVE: The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has responded to Reed Hastings’ declare Netflix is the “biggest builder” of cross-country tradition within the EU.
The EBU, which represents Europe’s public broadcasting networks, mentioned its members spend €20BN ($21BN) a yr on “homegrown” content material, nicely above the funding of SVoD providers.
This got here after Hastings on Monday talked up the cultural capital of Netflix, particularly its potential to draw viewers from one nation to content material from one other.
At a chat at Netflix’s Amsterdam HQ, the corporate’s co-founder and Executive Chairman quipped it was “ironic” a U.S. firm had achieved such a place and mentioned tis was “partially because all the other networks are national networks who specialize in one language group. We specialize in connecting.”
However, in a press release issued to Deadline, the EBU pointed to a number of metrics by which Europe’s networks lead worldwide streaming rivals.
“Public service media are proud to be the biggest investors in European content,” mentioned the org. “Our members finance 43% of all European content, excluding news and sport, whereas the SVoD services cover less than 2% of content financing. Public service media are producing as well as just distributing original European shows.”
The assertion additionally famous its members — who embody the BBC, France Televisions and ZDF — had been “prioritizing European content on our VoD platforms with 95% of programming originating from a European country, compared to just 31% of the content available on Netflix.”
It fulfils its 30% content material quotas in most main European territories, an Ampere report final yr revealed, quietly constructing its European content material library with out impacting its regional enterprise.
Netflix spent round $16.8BN on content material final yr globally, and has been pushing onerous within the EMEA area, which final yr grew to become the streamer’s largest by subscribers with 76.7 million.
The EBU has 68 members in 56 nations throughout Europe.
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