Cinema and fiction, more mandatory investments for on demand (but not for TV)

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Mandatory investment quotas in original productions by independent Italian producers tightened for video on demand platforms, from Netflix on down. No change on this front, however, for the commercial linear TVs (from Mediaset on down) which perhaps do not bring home what they would have liked, but which nevertheless receive a reduction in investment obligations in the so-called “cinema sub-quota” (much contested by the Cologno group).

However, it is a double track, which in some ways widens, that video on demand and linear TV platforms will have to follow after the approval of the supplementary and corrective provisions of the legislative decree of 8 November 2021, n. 208, containing the consolidated text of audiovisual media services (Tusmav).

Quotas are not the only element of the changes to the Consolidated Law on audiovisual services which received the green light from the Council of Ministers on 20 March, but it is certainly the most debated point, even in recent days, which has led, to for example, the Anica film producers’ associations to raise the alarm on the reduction of the possible commitment that the Tusmav imposes on video on demand and linear TV platforms with obligations to invest in works by independent producers (and therefore not linked to broadcasters) .

In the end, the result predicts that Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other video on demand operators will have to allocate a 16% share of their annual net revenues in Italy to “European” productions. This share is down compared to the current 20%, but with an increase from 50 to 70% of the “Italian” part. Translated: VOD should invest 11.2% of their net income in Italy (now it is 10%) in favor of independent Italian producers.

Initially, an operation of this kind was also envisaged for commercial linear TV with a drop in the European share from 12.5% ​​to 10%, but an increase from 50% to 70% of the Italian share, as for VOD, which would have meant for commercial TV, invest 7% of the annual turnover in Italy in Italian works (now it is 6.25%).