Netflix, HBO and Amazon Prime Video (among others) must offer 6% of its content in Catalan and two other co-official languages, according to the new audiovisual law in which the Government works together with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC). The Catalan party assured that its 13 deputies would vote in favor of the 2022 General Budgets in exchange for more productions in languages that coexist with Spanish.
Specifically, the new law, which will have to be approved by the Council of Ministers before the end of the year, will oblige the main streaming platforms to dub part of its content into Catalan, Basque or Galicianor. This means both new productions and those already present in the catalog. In total, it is expected that more than 1,500 series and movies services such as Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, Disney +, Apple TV +, Filmin, AtresPlayer and more, are doubled to Catalan and the rest of the co-official languages included in the agreement.
In 2018, let’s remember, the European Union forced large companies to make 30% of their catalog made up of European productions. The new audiovisual law, therefore, it will cause a large part of that catalog (20%) to be dubbed in the co-official languages. It is also expected that these languages will also be included in productions from the United States or from other countries not members of the European Union, resulting in 6% of the total content of the platforms.
Netflix, Prime Video, HBO and more streaming services are expected to double the agreed total by 2023
In addition, streaming services must also offer Catalan, Galician or Basque subtitles. ERC hopes, through a “promotion fund” that the productions previously dubbed or subtitled into Catalan by TV3 and that are present in apps such as Netflix, can be included again in these platforms, as indicated The newspaper. On the other hand, the new agreement also highlights that 15% of RTVE’s productions are in these co-official languages. It also includes a new audiovisual tax. A part of the proceeds (10%) will go to the production of series and films in languages such as Catalan.
The new audiovisual law will it will be approved in a future Council of Ministers (still undated) and later, in the Congress of Deputies. It is expected to take effect in early 2022 and that during 2023 Netflix, HBO and others will have already adapted 6% of the agreed content.