Just under a third of over two million titles found in the catalogues of online video services in Europe are of European origin, with just over a fifth from countries within the European Union. The majority of those from other European countries were produced in the United Kingdom. The European Commission is reported to be considering removing the United Kingdom from the list of countries recognised as contributing to quotas for European productions, which could have significant implications if implemented.
A report from the European Audiovisual Observatory uses catalogue data from JustWatch and covers 971 online video catalogues for movies and 497 catalogues for television seasons.
The JustWatch streaming guide provides a meta catalogue of movies and television shows, including services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV and many others.
European works made up 32% of the total catalogues, with works from the 27 European Union countries comprising 21%. The other 11% were mainly works produced in the United Kingdom. Works originating from the United States made up 49% of the total.
Among online video subscription services, with a total of 378,204 movies and television seasons, 41% were from the United States, with 22% from the 27 European Union countries, led by France, Germany Italy and Spain, with 10% from other European countries, of which 73% were from the United Kingdom.
Across 34,707 television seasons within online video subscription catalogues, 34% were from the United States, 26% were from the 27 European Union countries, 19% from other European countries, of which 93% were from the United Kingdom.
Under the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, television and streaming services must include a share of European works in their transmission schedules or on-demand catalogues. These are defined as titles originating in, and produced mainly by nationals of, European Union countries or those that have ratified the earlier Council of Europe European Convention on Transfrontier Television, which includes the United Kingdom.
The directive requires that online video services should include at least 30% of European works in their catalogues.
A European Commission policy paper proposes to restrict the definition of European works, potentially excluding the United Kingdom, which contributed about 28% of European investment by platforms in 2021, compared to about 21% for Germany and 15% for France, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory.
The European Commission is due to review the audiovisual directive by the end of 2026. Any move to exclude the United Kingdom from quotas for European works could prove problematic for major multinational service providers and potentially reduce demand for exports from the United Kingdom.
Film and TV content in TVOD, SVOD and FOD catalogues is published by the European Audiovisual Observatory and available from its web site.