Content quotas and prominence on VOD services:new challenges for audiovisual european regulators

Abstract

ABSTRACT The prevalence of non-linear viewing habits calls for new regulation practices that extend beyond the current scope of traditional audiovisual regulators. Yet content quotas expressed as shares of a VOD service’s catalogue are in the process of being implemented across the European Union. Somewhat inadequately, the same methods for regulating cultural diversity have crossed over from linear television to non-linear services. Only a vague mention of prominence in the European Union’s AVMS Directive hints at a new, non-linear world, which regulators are ill-equipped to exert control over. We argue that the political ambition to promote European works comes up against unprecedented difficulties of application.