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Subject archive for: Netflix

Netflix takes stock of Nordic ambitions and the need for originals

Reading time: 3 min Netflix is ​​still the leading streaming provider in the Nordics with just over 4 million subscribers. Despite a problematic 2022, Netflix has been an active investor in Danish TV series and films.

Denmark – a horror example?

Reading time: 5 min 2023 could be a landmark year for the TV and streaming industry in Denmark, with two major areas where you really have to keep your mouth shut and be careful. No more of the mistakes made in 2022 can be afforded.

Danflix

The left's media policy Christmas surprise came in the form of a plan for a new, large public service pool, to which a "public service counterpart to the popular streaming service Netflix" must be attached.

As Britt Bager, Venstre's spokesperson for culture and media, explained it on Thursday afternoon:

"When we call it Danflix, it naturally stems from Netflix. But it is also a way of emphasizing that we believe that in the future we must collect all Danish content in one place.”

There, bells rang in my Christmas-weary head, since they were phrases I myself once formulated! I even registered the domain, but I wonder if I remembered to pay it?

I went through my extensive digital archives and found powerpoints and emails from 2011. And sure enough. At a workshop on 10 October 2011, I had introduced the word "Danflix" to a major customer, and I found out that I was still the owner of the domain.

I was also able to state that in both 2013 and 2014 I had suggested to major Danish players on the media market that a unified streaming service for Danish content could be an obvious bulwark against the continued growth among Danish customers, which Netflix continued to achieve.

It was amusing to see that the Left had come up with a similar idea, and not least exactly the same name, so I wrote a small casual update on Facebook:

Then it took off - with headlines on dr.dk, eb.dk and bt.dk, among others, as well as lots of interest on social media.

Indeed, I must not claim greater oracular insight than is reasonable. But in 2009 it was clear that Netflix was on to something right with their streaming service, which started in 2007. In the fall of 2011, major Comcast in the US (similar to YouSee) had started to lose customers to Netflix.

It was a hot topic in media analytical circles, and I gave many presentations, seminars, workshops, lectures and conferences where Netflix was analyzed and warned that they were probably coming to Denmark. In 2013 or 2014, we thought at the time.

But I actually experienced that virtually everyone in the industry – broadcasters, producers, telecom operators and TV distributors – did not believe that broadcasting TV and video over the Internet would be possible on a larger scale, and that consumers would not be interested.

So my idea of ​​building a Danflix in a collaboration between producers and TV stations, it was impossible to get anyone interested.

But the idea is still really good - even if it is not particularly original, all the while that it is strongly inspired by the American streaming service Hulu.

Hulu went live as a streaming service in 2007 with a concept that gathered the most popular TV series and shows from the major American TV stations in one service. Today, Hulu is owned by Fox, Disney and NBC/Universal (which is owned by cable TV operator Comcast) with a 30 percent stake each, while TimeWarner holds ten percent.

The user interface on Hulu is reminiscent of Netflix, but is therefore composed of program content from both the largest broadcasters in the US, as well as a large number of smaller ones. Consumers largely perceive Hulu as the ultimate "tape recorder" service for ongoing TV broadcasts.

Furthermore, after the merger with Fox, Disney will have a 60 percent total ownership stake in Hulu, and Disney/Fox will dominate the continued development of Hulu. Incidentally, Hulu has also started producing its own original series, of which The Handmaid's Tale has been the most sensational (which HBO Nordic currently distributes in our part of the world).

So my recurring vision has been that on Danish soil there is fertile ground for a "Danish Hulu", a Danflix, built on elements of the same model as Hulu.

But since 2014, I haven't thought about the idea anymore, because the development went in a different direction. The individual Danish TV stations got serious about building their own streaming services, and today we now have, for example, TV 2 Play, Viaplay and DR TV, which all work fine on their websites, but especially as apps on all our modern media devices – even with live TV.

Development has therefore moved away from common platforms and towards individual apps. Here too, DR itself is well ahead with an excellent service for license payers, and streaming from DR ranks highest in Danish user surveys.

But it has also provoked many actors in the Danish television market, where very big questions have been raised as to whether DR should even take on the role of distributor and use license funds on technological investments?

It is one of the questions that will obviously have to be politically clarified in the upcoming media settlement negotiations, and the question must also have been on the minds of the Left when they planned the presentation. Because maybe Danflix could just take the current DR streaming service and put it outside of DR in a new construction? Or do you think that a new organization has to start over and build a completely new streaming service from scratch?

It can be done. Streaming is no longer rocket science, but there are quite a few technical challenges in getting it to run as well as consumers are used to from, for example, Netflix. It can be expensive. And now we Danes have already paid for one streaming service – DR TV – for our licensing funds, so maybe they should just continue under a slightly different auspices?

Or should one of the country's TV operators build the new national streaming service? They are faced with severe challenges, since customers are fleeing from cable TV packages, revenue is falling, because now customers stream directly from DR and TV 2 instead and fill the rest of their lives with Netflix.

So the cable TV operators need something new to tear into, a new way to bring customers together, and they all have experience with streaming services as well. But which of them should it be? And must a Danflix streaming service be commercial? And will TV 2 be involved at all? They are clearly betting firmly on their own closed universe with TV 2 Play – that they want to own the customer themselves.

Before one can begin to see the contours of any concrete answers, there is a large complex of political elements that must be reconciled before one can see whether the idea makes sense.

After all, this is not small change we are talking about.

In the proposal, the left will cut 400 million of DR's 3,7 billion from the license funds and place them in a new pool, from which everyone will be able to apply, to create content that will then ultimately appear on Danflix, which will not cost the Danes further, i.e. obviously without a subscription. In addition, another 100 million will be added to the pool from the current media support scheme, so that the Danflix pool will be at least 500 million.

A newly created public service board - staffed by professionals - must distribute the funds from the Danflix pool, and all taxpayers in Denmark can apply from the pool - including DR and TV 2. You immediately think, who could these professionals be? And where will this new media-powerful public service board rule from? I wonder if the Film Institute can see itself as self-prescribed, and would like to offer to provide some desks and public service pool-experienced heads?

There are a lot of questions, and many of us are looking forward to February 1, when, according to Britt Bager, the government will present its overall proposal for a media settlement. For the time being, there is good public support for the proposal, as Culture Minister Mette Bock finds it "incredibly exciting".

Back to Danflix. Is it a good name? Maybe there's a reason why I haven't followed up on Danflix more diligently myself, because maybe the name, despite owning the domain, isn't the most brilliant.

Or it's just a fantastically perfect and beautiful popular name for the Danes' very own public service streaming service! Danflix leans beautifully on the fine tradition from, for example, Danland, Dankort and Danbriketter...

Despite all this beautiful Then, then Morten Marinus from the Danish People's Party has spoken insultingly towards both the Left and me by making this insulting assessment of the name Danflix in Berlingske: "It's weak-minded. I think it sounds like some company title from some Olsen gang movie.”

But there are also many other options, such as DanPlay, DaneFlix, LetStream, NemTV, DanTV, BorgerTV, DanTube and what do I know. DR TV also sounds good.


This post was originally published at Filmmagasinet Echo film