Netflix Europe Content Chief on What Members Watch: “Six Different Genres Every Month”
Netflix is looking to tell authentic stories from various countries now that hit programming doesn’t need to come out of Hollywood alone anymore, Larry Tanz, vp, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) content at the global streaming giant, said on Monday.
“Great stories really can come from anywhere,” the executive shared during an event for reporters and Netflix partners and stakeholders at the streamer’s European headquarters in Amsterdam. Until a few years ago, “to have something … successful creators felt like it had to be in English and had to go to Hollywood and sell it there,” Tanz said. The widely held thought was that “that was the only way,” he continued. “Everything has changed just in the last five years or so where you can film a series in Spain and get it made in Spain with our team in Madrid. And it is a global phenomenon. And that is true in a bunch of our countries, and it is incredible.”
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So, nowadays, people don’t have to fly out to Los Angeles to pitch a movie or series and make it in English, but can tell a story in their local language, such as All Quiet on the Western Front, he concluded.
Doing that authentically is key, he highlighted. “Authentic means a story like The Empress,” Netflix’s Germany- and Austria-set hit drama, Tanz also explained. The key goal is to appeal to local audiences who can enjoy seeing local stories told authentically, which then can also appeal to viewers elsewhere.
Do people in different European countries or regions mostly watch a single genre? Tanz said that is not the case. For example, fans of French hit series Lupin also watch such genres as comedies, dramas, thrillers and others. As a further example, he also mentioned that the old stereotype that audiences in the Nordics only like Nordic noir clearly isn’t true. “Our members watch an average of six different genres every month,” he shared.
After highlighting that Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is now the biggest region for Netflix in terms of subscribers, the executive was asked what his team’s next focus was. “We have a lot to do to satisfy and bring a ton to bring joy to our members here in terms of bringing great films and series to them,” Tanz said.
In 2019, Netflix announced its move to the bigger Amsterdam office as of May 2020 after unveiling new digs in Berlin, Paris and London. The company, which ended 2022 with 230.75 million subscribers, has been expanding its presence and production operations in various international markets.
EMEA quietly became the streamer’s biggest region in terms of subscribers in 2022, overtaking the combined user figure of 74.3 million for the U.S. and Canada with its 76.7 million. Its revenue for last year reached $9.75 billion, with average revenue per user (ARPU) of $10.99, compared to $15.86 for the U.S. and Canada.
In early 2021, Ampere Analysis said that Netflix had become the second-largest TV company in Europe in terms of European revenue in 2020. It accounted for 6.1 percent of total European TV revenue back then, only ranking behind Comcast’s 12.0 percent. In 2022, Comcast represented 10.3 percent of all European TV revenue across subscription streaming, pay TV, public TV and TV advertising, the firm has told THR, while Netflix had grown to 7.7 percent before including online video advertising revenue, which the streamer just started recording.
While 70 percent of Netflix approximately 12,800 full-time employees as of Dec. 31, 2022, were based in the U.S. and Canada, according to the company’s annual report, EMEA ranked second with 2,000, or 16 percent.
Netflix on Monday also unveiled two new Dutch comedy titles, the film The Dadchelor from Jon Karthaus and Daan van den Nouweland and Bad Boa’s from Jandino Asporaat, who also plays the lead role in the film. The Dadchelor tells the story of “uber-responsible Mark, who is about to become a father and goes on a seemingly innocent Dadchelor weekend, that spirals out of control and even puts the life of his friends on the line.”
Bad Boa’s is a film in collaboration with Asporaat, one of the most popular comedians in the Netherlands who also plays the lead role of Ramon, “a well-meaning but barely effective BOA (extraordinary investigation officers that are officers who help the police to supervise local order and safety), is told that he has a terminal illness,” according to a plot summary.
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