“The celebrated cross-border traffic of films faces a paradoxical situation: while the visual language of cinema is universally accessible, understanding film is conditioned upon the role of subtitles and translation” (Deshpande and Mazaj 62).
While the European continent has hundreds of millions of English speakers that have the ability to watch English-language television shows and films, corporations such as Netflix, HBO, and Amazon recognize how individuals desire to see local-language content.
“The US SVoD giants are increasingly turning their attention to local-language content, particularly in Europe… The US streaming platforms have long had their eye on Europe. Amazon and Netflix first started building their subscriber base by offering access to hit US shows and films, as well as a smattering of locally acquired programming. Then they dipped their toes into commissioning, bankrolling a handful of locally made shows with multimillion-dollar budgets and top European talent. Now, spurred on by the success of programmes such as The Crown and The Grand Tour in attracting new subscribers, the streamers are commissioning more original programming from leading European drama and factual producers. Amazon spends a notable proportion of its $4.5bn original content budget in Europe and has drama productions up and running in France, Germany and the UK” says Tim Dams.
Read more on Screen Daily about how Netflix, Amazon, and HBO are expanding into Europe