During the last quarter of 2024, Netflix attracted more viewers in the UK than BBC One, and became the country’s most popular TV service. Across its entire portfolio, the BBC remains the UK’s favorite news and entertainment destination, but it still marks a significant milestone for the US-based streamer. After all, Netflix was a service that shipped DVDs through the mail in California a few decades ago.
I’ve researched TV in the streaming era and the issue for national broadcasters is that streaming is a global industry. That is to say, locally produced content benefits operations globally – customers in country A benefit from content produced primarily for audiences in country A. Thus, subscriber growth in any region leads to mutual benefits, as it provides a boost to one platform. Extend content to any location.
And as Netflix grows, so does its value to viewers. This model constitutes a significant competitive advantage for it and other platforms that stream content across borders.
Without Hollywood movies and TV series, Netflix would be a marginal player in the US market, but this content also attracts subscribers from around the world. The same applies to Korean programs, which cater to local audiences and have proven popular around the world. In mid-January, Netflix’s most watched shows in the UK were a mix of US and Korean programs, including the second season of Squid Game.
Netflix is adept at broadcasting content across continents, using its massive library to its advantage. Its scale gives it an unbeatable edge over local rivals.
This strategy focuses on content portability and was explained by Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, who said: “We’re not trying to create more Hollywood content for the world, we’re trying to create content for the rest of the world from anywhere in the world.” Are doing.” World.”
In fact, Netflix has both Hollywood and non-English language content. But in any event, the platform never competes on an equal footing with local services and whenever it enters the market it does so with the advantage of libraries created for other regions.
Netflix and other streaming giants are reshaping media systems across Europe. An audience survey of 1,813 respondents aged 16 to 34 in four European countries (Denmark, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands) revealed that Netflix was by far the most popular destination for long-form content such as movies. The survey also confirmed that Netflix, along with Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, were the most watched streaming services in these four countries.
Struggle for broadcasters
As a result of this renewed competition, Europe’s commercial broadcasters are struggling for advertisers, viewers and investors. My calculations show that at the end of 2024, the collective market capitalization of Europe’s largest commercial broadcasters in the region’s five largest markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) and the Nordic countries was just 5.6% of Netflix’s. . (US$14.2 billion (£11.5 billion) vs US$252.5 billion).
Navigating this global system is equally challenging for public service media like the BBC. They are also losing viewers, especially younger viewers, to streaming services. Historically, the EU and the UK have been good at protecting their film and TV production sectors.
For example, an EU directive states that streaming services must “secure at least 30% of European works in their catalogues” and ensure that content is prominently available. In the future, the EU and the UK may also need to strengthen their support for public service media.
But Netflix is fond of European content anyway, and is investing billions of dollars in the region. For the first time in 2024, the service was spending more on international content than on American programming (US$7.9 billion vs. US$7.5 billion). And, in the UK alone, Netflix has invested more than US$6 billion since 2020.
While on the surface this investment is a coup for domestic creative industries, the point is that it remains a US-based service that decides what stories get told and how. Netflix is interested in homegrown content, but during the production process its commissioners shape these stories with international audiences in mind.
Thus, the local stories that Netflix selects in the UK and elsewhere are not necessarily those that a public service broadcaster would want to tell. Furthermore, the UK has no control over the ownership of these platforms and, depending on whose hands they fall into, this may prove to be an issue in the future.
Public service media, including the BBC, are instruments of national self-representation, reflecting the specificities of a country, its mood and its strengths and weaknesses better than any other platform. This is a capability and prerogative that the UK must retain.
Jean Chalabi, Professor of Sociology, City St George’s, University of London
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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