As the EU says 20 per cent of Netflix content should be made in the European Union, is this a good reason to back Brexit?
Len Shackleton, professor of economics at the University of Buckingham and fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, says Yes.
A quota for tedious German family sagas or subsidised reworkings of Napoleon’s triumphs, compulsorily advertised on the Netflix homepage, may not itself drive voters to Brexit. But attempting to regulate video-on-demand is symptomatic of the Commission’s ever-expanding reach. There are good things in the revised Directive, but this isn’t one. Quotas protect producers: European writers and directors have been vocal in support. But will consumers gain? Video-streaming will be more difficult to enter and the market power of Amazon and Netflix will grow. More “cultural diversity” as the Commission expects? Debatable. Tough foreign content restrictions in France failed to dent the popularity of US movies. Nor did the Eady Levy on box office receipts in post-war Britain, even if more movies were filmed at Pinewood. Elevating “domestic content” as a principle produces daft results: the 35 per cent quota recently imposed in Canada probably led to adult movie channels featuring more Canadians and fewer Mexicans. Who noticed?
Sam Bowman, executive director of the Adam Smith Institute, says No.
This is a bad rule, but it won’t actually change anything: European films account for 21 percent of Netflix’s films already. The European Union has been quite bad at regulating the digital economy, often mistaking market share for market power. This is the mindset behind its preposterous antitrust case against Google, and one reason it’s so unlikely that we’ll see a European digital giant any time soon. It has its flaws, but on the whole, the Single Market is a force for good. It stops member states from enacting regulatory barriers to trade, which can be much more restrictive than simple tariffs. In this case, it stops France from requiring Netflix to carry 20 per cent French-language films. The rule is stupid, but it is a compromise that prevents even stupider rules. Leaving the Single Market because of a few bad regulations would be making perfect the enemy of good. Leaving the EU may be desirable, but leaving the Single Market would be an act of self-harm.