Netflix versus Culture: Language Policy in the Netherlands

Can you also look forward to that feeling when you come home after a long day of work and that you flop down on the couch and start watching a movie or series? If so, do you still do this through  television service or do you use online devices such as YouTube or Netflix?

As you might have experienced, in the last couple of years the production, distribution, and consumption of ‘media content’ have changed at lightning speed (Raad voor Cultuur [Council for Culture], 2018). Thanks to mobile devices with high-speed Internet access, media use has increased enormously. Therefore, the media landscape has seen unprecedented dynamics. This paper examines what this means exactly for the audiovisual sector, especially for Let’s take a look at the Dutch situation.

Most of the online streaming used in the Netherlands are owned by a handful of large US companies (e.g. Netflix). Due to their enormous economic strength, they frequently distribute (often) high-quality series, films and other content.

Additionally, due to the knowledge they gain their large amount of users, they are able through sophisticated marketing, to react to the demands (Raad voor Cultuur, 2018). These foreign companies mainly produce international content, which means that the amount of Dutch content decreases and also that income from advertisements flows into international directions. Some are afraid that if this continues the Dutch audio-visual product may get marginalized.

In sum, we can safely say that, since this issue deals with ideologies, the last word has not been said about it.

To pr this from happening the Council for Culture,  advisory body of the Dutch government, has  a report in which they analyzed the developments in the audiovisual world from a cultural, social and economic perspective.

One the Dutch government is to change its language policy by introducing a (minimum) quota for the screening of Dutch films, series, documentaries, and animations for cinemas, film theaters, and on-demand platforms that are active in the Netherlands (Raad voor Cultuur, 2018). In an interview with De Volkskrant, the director of the Council for Culture, Jeroen Bartelse, says that they are thinking in the direction of a quota of 15 percent Dutch content (NU.nl, 2018). In other words, on-demand-channels will then be obliged to arrange Dutch content.

“What a nonsense. Why should a part of my Netflix subscription fee go to Dutch productions, which once again help the Dutch celebrities to get a job and income? For content that I, and many with me, will never watch...?”

Furthermore, the Council for Culture advis to set levies, between 2 percent and 5 percent of the turnover, for all operators (such as Netflix) of both paid and free offline and online services. The payments gained from this will then be used to facilitate the future of the Dutch audiovisual sector and to strengthen the cultural audiovisual product (Raad voor Cultuur, 2018).

However, this advice is not binding as long as the government does not act on it. But let’s imagine that they indeed change the policies in accordance with the recommendation, ask ourselves whether this would work. Some news organizations wrote about this possible future language policy and the reactions  show divergent opinions about it. For example,  Figure 2, a reader reacted to Jansen’s (2018) column about the advice

“What a nonsense. Why should a part of my Netflix subscription fee go to Dutch productions, which once again help the Dutch celebrities to get a job and income? For content that I, and many with me, will never watch...?” 

Such reactions show an interplay between top-down and bottom-up practices. Thinking that a policy is purely top-down, is not realistic. It gets modeled up and change from the bottom-up. In other words, putting together a great policy text containing a clear overview of the aims and means does not guarantee that they will succeed. How people react to the policy is also an important aspect. 

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Nevertheless, Reed Hastings, the vice president of Netflix Originals (which is content that Netflix creates or of which they own the license), explains in a conversation with NOS (a Dutch ) that they want to get ahead of the quota and invest in all kinds of content throughout Europe. This in order  and the need for regulation. Hastings also explains that countries that have set fixed regulations (a quota), like Canada, have not produced great content (Bouwman, 2018). Therefore, they have announced that Netflix is working on a Dutch Netflix Original series.

Bartelse, the director of the Council  Culture, responded on this announcement in conversation with the NOS that it is good that Netflix does not perceive the Netherlands as just a profit region and that investments like these are crucial for high-quality in the audiovisual sector, however, also said that one series is not enough (Bouwman, 2018).

ome feel the urgency to protect the Dutch culture, which includes the Dutch language. Additionally, they seem to want to stop the process of Englishization, which is caused by economic globalization. In other words, they stress the need for negotiated multilingualism and the rights of speakers to resist global pressures and to use, maintain, and develop their local languages (Dor, 2004). However, one can wonder whether this is still possible and whether this is ideology is widely supported by the general population. For example, Figure 3 shows someone's reaction to Jansen’s (2018) column about the advice from the Dutch Council for Culture by saying:

“Ah, protectionism and nationalism… these together will definitely work :p. There is still enough Dutch culture that we can preserve, there is no need to do this in the field of television, which actually came from the United States”.

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Additionally, as I read in multiple reactions to the same column, people just want good content, and not everyone trust that this isDutch in origin. Figure 4, for example, shows how someone says the following:

“Sorry, “good Dutch spoken productions”? THEY DO NOT EXIST. You can call the best Dutch productions bad at best. Whereas 99% just is amateurish rubbish.”

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