Major streaming services operating in the Netherlands will start investing 5% of their Dutch annual turnover in Dutch productions. The House of Representatives has agreed to a bill by state secretary Gunay Uslu (Culture and Media). Thanks to this investment, more money will be available for making Dutch offerings.
With this measure, state secretary Uslu wants to ensure that enough Dutch productions can also be seen on major streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+ and Videoland. Dutch stories are getting less and less space on these platforms, especially due to growing budgets for foreign films, series and documentaries.
With this bill, the state secretary wants to ensure that more series like The Year of Fortuyn, The Terrible Eighties, Dirty Lines and The Golden Hour can be watched. And films like Knor, Soof and Along the Way or wonderful documentaries like Shabu and Shadow Game.€40 million extra for Dutch film and television sector
The bill requires streaming services with an annual turnover in the Netherlands of more than €10 million to invest 5% of that turnover in Dutch productions. Such an investment implies, for instance, that streaming services (co)produce a Dutch title themselves, or purchase and offer an existing, recent Dutch production. This will generate at least €40 million in additional investment in the Dutch film and television sector.
Half of the investments should go to films, series and documentaries, the other half can be spent by the streaming service itself, as long as it is a Dutch production. Investments in reporting sports events or matches are not covered by the bill. The bill has chosen that at least 60% of the productions must be made by an independent producer. This way, there is more variety in the supply and we strengthen the Dutch production sector.
The new law can enter into force after approval by the Senate.