Netflix remains “all in” whilst competitors dial back, says EMEA content chief

Netflix is maintaining its bullish approach to streaming despite competitors finding it “really hard and expensive”, with EMEA content chief Larry Tanz revealing two new dramas from the region which will join 40 shows in production for the streamer this month alone.

Source: Netflix

Tanz told a packed Series Mania Forum audience that Netflix remains “all in” on streaming, highlighting that the company is sticking to its strategy while highlighting that others – which remained unnamed – had exited some parts of the region.

“Competitors are realising that streaming can be a great business but that it is also really hard and expensive – that has caused some competitors to dial back or exit countries entirely. We are all in.

“We are continuing to invest and to grow our investments, I’m proud that we have done what we have said we would do in terms of plans and we will continue to do that.”

Tanz said that Netflix is working with more than 400 producers across EMEA and has 40 shows shooting in March alone, but said country-specific quotas could affect spending.

Streaming quotas have become increasing prevalent across Europe, with France one such country to have introduced minimum requirements for OTT operators.

But Tanz said “flexibility” was needed, adding that “constricting” quotas could “stifle creativity”.

“The more flexibility there is, the more we can do,” he continued, pointing to Spain as “a good example” of that, while also attempting to dismiss “myths” around the rights that the streamer needs.

He pointed to the fact that Netflix claims to only own 25% of its content in EMEA, adding that concerns around losing rights is largely a legacy issue. “Rights are important to producers and so they have to be important to us,” he said.

“When we started local commissioning here [in Europe], it was very early days and we were funding local content for streaming, which some people thought was crazy.

“And in the beginning we did have that Hollywood model of ownership, but that has changed a lot in the last five or six years. We only own the IP on 25% of our European projects – so it is really a range of deal structures that we do, we call them flexible.”

Unscripted expansion

Tanz said acquisitions remained a key focus, allowing the streamer to broaden out its offering, while he also talked up its efforts across the genre spectrum.

“Two or three years ago we were doing almost no non-fiction – now it’s all over the region, we’ve just launched Love Is Blind Sweden and then at the other end of the cultural spectrum we have an Arabic-language version of Love Is Blind, which is for a wildly different culture and type of show.”