European Cinema and the Streaming Era: Policy, Platforms, and Production

A lot has changed for audiovisual industries worldwide between 2012 and 2022. New
players have emerged (Netflix, Amazon, Apple…) and Hollywood studios are now part of
even larger conglomerates that are trying to adapt to these changes. These companies and
their platforms have redefined how films and TV are made and watched. We now have:

- Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD)

- Advertising supported video-on-demand (AVOD)
- Transactional video-on-demand (TVOD)
- Combinations of the three within one platform

The relationship between these new platforms and other media, such as cinema – how
SVOD could fit within the ‘industrial logics of cinema’ is something Film and Television
studies must comprehend.

European cinema and streaming

The European streaming market is well-established, being able to work or compete with
theaters and broadcasting. These US companies try to control how and which are produced
in Europe, how they are distributed, available and for how long.

Streamers have given substantial financial investments to films, meaning the industry has
increased production. Also, European films circulate now more widely than ever, a luxury for
audiences.

But policy makers and critics see dangers in the platforms’ ability to control processes of
production, distribution and exhibition. They doubt, for example, their commitment. While
short-term financial injections create growth in national or local film industries, there is also a
need for longer-term collaborations to build sustainable industries.

There’s also the shortening of the release window between the theaters and the SVOD
platforms, meaning cinema exhibitors are increasingly challenged by the platforms.
Producers, distributors, exhibitors and broadcasters have adapted, through collaboration
with already existing platforms or creating their own, or have resisted.

European Cinema in/and the Streaming Era: Periodization and Timeline

● 2015: Netflix and Amazon redirect their original content strategies towards films that
will be almost exclusive to their SVOD services. Netflix expands across nearly all of
Europe.
● 2017: Amazon Prime Video expands across nearly all of Europe. Netflix achieves
success producing series in Europe.
● 2018: Netflix’s original films draw major attention from international press and
European film institutions: Roma wins at Venice, ban from Cannes Film Festival.
● 2020: Quarantine during Covid-19 pandemic contributes to an increase in
subscriptions to SVOD services. Disney launches Disney+ in many European
markets.
 ● 2021: Multiple nations adapt the Audiovisual Media Services Directive into national
laws aimed at regulating the activities of global platforms.

The European Film Industry in Transition

Europe is a complex and fragmented film industry, with large and small markets, different
cultures and languages, and numerous distribution territories. The industry was dominated
by a small group of powerful companies with vertically-integrated operations, usually in
production, international sales and distribution. A much larger group of many thousands of
film companies in Europe consists of medium-sized and small-sized companies not only
focused on film production.

The continent also has an established tradition of independent filmmaking funded,

sometimes with difficulty, by national film funds, TV broadcasters and distributor pre-sales,
and with the help of tax-incentives and soft money (like subsidies of different kinds).

This structure makes the European film industry very diverse in terms of stories, countries
and languages. It also faces huge challenges, both within and beyond the European market,
when competing with US Hollywood productions, because of Europe’s lower budgets.

One of the key objectives of the European Commission, through Creative Europe Media, is
to enhance the distribution, circulation and consumption of European films. While the film
distribution market in Europe is mainly controlled by Hollywood’s subsidiaries, the theatrical
cinema exhibition market is very much controlled by European companies.

The development of the online market in the late 2000s introduces the narrative of liberating
films from normal distribution, shifting from limited access to unlimited access and from
content scarcity to content abundance. But catalogue strategies are often based on notions
of exclusive access and/or catalogue rotation – audience choice on individual streaming
platforms is not endless.

Some SVOD platforms increasingly invest in audio-visual productions beyond the US. This
could change the imbalances associated with the dominance of US films. Nevertheless,
these investments need to be put into perspective, as US platforms’ budgets for European
productions are much lower than their budget for the US home market.

European Cinema in the Streaming Era: Emerging Patterns and Questions for Further
Research

An important trend in European cinema during the streaming era is the convergence
between film and television. At the level of policy, film policies have become ‘audiovisual
policies’, with support being redirected to series as well as films. Producers and other
creatives in the film industry have been increasingly working across both films and series.

Another important subject is the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on European cinema, as it
has been a major crisis point for the global film industries. Once further research is done,
VOD platforms will have to be major parts of the story.
A further important theme is the continent’s ‘unity in diversity’. That is, how the same issues
affect different European countries in different ways.

European cinema is unified in its inequality against the American film industry. The arrival of
global streaming platforms has changed that power dynamic in important ways, but it could
be argued that they have made European audiences and filmmakers’ dependency on
American partners even more pronounced.

They have increased the circulation of European cinema (and culture), both within the
continent and globally, but they also pose dangers to that same culture. They influence what
is available, what is discoverable and when films become available.

When it comes to production, the business practice of global platforms often involve
acquiring and retaining intellectual property rights, practices that can harm producers and
European culture generally in the long-run.

The political economy of the production and circulation of European cinema and television
are major concerns for policy-makers at both the national and regional levels.