Toespraak van staatssecretaris Dekker Building bridges

Toespraak | 10-03-2016

Ladies and Gentlemen,
 

These days, people have the funniest conversations about drama series. Once upon a time, we all used to be ready in our pajamas at half past 8 on a Friday evening to watch a new episode of Mister Bean. And once grown up, standing around the coffee machine, we could all talk about the same program we’d seen last night.

Now, our morning coffee conversations are no longer about what we saw on television yesterday. We talk about where we are in what series. At one point, a person might even stop listening, press her hands against her ears, and shout: 'Spoiler alert!' I think this is a nice example of how digital technology is changing our viewing habits.
 

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing my best to dodge spoilers for the third season of The Bridge. In this drama series, Swedish and Danish detectives collaborate to solve murder cases under shared jurisdiction. This blockbuster shows that, despite being neighbors, these two nationalities have very different ways of working together. Besides this contrasting approach, it shows that if you build a bridge between radically different people, one and one is three. And not only when it comes to solving murder cases. The series is an amazing international success, so a good example for this conference.  

Because here, the central question is how to make European content travel more across borders. Improving the cross-border circulation of European films, drama series, documentaries and animation has long been a key objective of EU policy. And the digital revolution brings a new dimension to it.
 

Viewing behavior is changing. Young people in particular are watching anytime and everywhere on their mobile devices and smart screens. New types of companies have entered the market. Broadcasters, film and television producers, telecommunication companies, global video-on-demand services, social media… they all play a role today.

This evolving market calls on companies like you to adapt their strategies. And it calls on politicians like me to adapt our public policies.
For me, one thing is clear. Any policy, whether national or European, should be open to innovation and open to the world. It doesn't make sense to build barriers to protect certain markets against the digital tide. It is costly and ultimately the floods will come anyway. We would do better to build bridges – bridges that carry us from the old to the new world. Bridges that carry us from local to global markets.

Let me give you some examples.

My first example concerns film-funding schemes. Europe releases 1200 new films a year, twice as many as Hollywood. But in terms of audience share, we lag well behind. On average, American films have an audience share of 70% in European cinemas. National films come 2th in their own markets. But they have great difficulty finding an audience abroad. Many Hollywood films have huge budgets solely for marketing. In fact, some marketing budgets in Hollywood are bigger than the entire production budget of the average European film. Of course we can’t match the numbers, but we could consider spending less on production volumes and more on marketing and distribution.

How those films are distributed could be better translated to this era. Some films do best if they are released first in the cinema, then on television, and then on-demand. In a digital age, others actually benefit from what is called day-and-date release - simultaneous release through several windows and in several countries. These new windowing strategies help prevent illegal downloading! I feel that public funding schemes should encourage these new strategies.

A second example concerns quotas and levies for television channels and video on demand services. Although quotas and levies may help to sustain the mere volume of national production, these instruments do not promote audience reach and cross border circulation. To actually expand markets, other things are far more important.

Like developing creative talent, developing compelling stories with wider international appeal and developing the audience’s interest in stuff from other European countries.
 

This may be the hardest part, but there are already many promising examples. I sometimes think we are entering a golden age of European drama series that do travel abroad. Just to mention a few:

• The Czech series Burning Bush.
• The French series The Returned.
• The German series Our Mother, Our Father.
• The Spanish series Grand Hotel.
• The Scandinavian series The Killing.

My third and last example concerns the global and local dimensions of audiovisual markets. All eyes are currently on Netflix, now rapidly expanding into new countries across the globe. HBO Europe is another American company that has been around longer, investing in local productions and winning acclaimed European prizes. Likewise, companies rooted in Europe have made their way abroad. An example from my own country is Endemol Shine. Endemol started developing formats for Dutch television in the 1970s and is now one of the biggest independent television production companies in the world.

I don't feel that global media players are necessarily a threat; they can also be a friend to local audiovisual sectors, enlarging both the production base and the audience base for local content.  

Today, people from different parts of the audiovisual business will be sharing their experience and insights with you. They will tell you what they think are the main trends and tricks of the trade.

Tomorrow, the attention will shift to government policy, in particular EU regulation. Allow me one last word on the latter.

Last December, the European Commission issued a strategy for strengthening the Digital Single Market. There will be different opinions about the forthcoming legislative proposals. As a member of the Dutch government, I would appeal for light-tough regulation that gives scope for innovation. But if EU Member States cannot agree on having fewer rules, let us at least have the same rules. It would be wrong to carve out national territories on the Internet and then protect them on a national basis. That simply isn’t going to work. In 1989, the EU agreed on common rules that enabled television channels to operate across borders. This was a great boost to Europe’s audiovisual industry and I really hope that we will continue on this path, also in the digital era.
 
I strongly believe in the strength and vitality of the European audiovisual sector. From the very first silent movies to today’s drama series, Europe has been a source of high quality and great variety. And Hollywood would not be what it is today, if it wasn’t for the creative talent it attracts from Europe.

As I said at the start: we should not build walls, but rather build bridges. The ultimate challenge is to help our creative talents and companies adapt to the digital era, exploit their massive potential and reach a wider audience - in Europe and in other parts of the world. I hope this conference will deliver many inspiring ideas and examples.
 

I am delighted to first pass the floor to Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix. Tomorrow a new season of House of Cards is starting. I am just old enough to know that the original concept dates back to 1990 and was aired by the BBC. And I am young enough to wonder whether the woman candidate will succeed in the House of Cards democratic primaries. So Reed Hastings, the spoiler alerts are on you now.