Tomas Tobé (M) is not impressed by the proposal for the EU to introduce a tax or charge on streaming services.
– The cost would be passed on to the viewers through increased subscription prices, says Tomas Tobé (M).
Denmark and France already have
He is the Moderates’ EU candidate in this summer’s election, and thinks that neither the EU nor the government should raise the tax on streaming, which will then lead to higher fees.
It reports Swedish daily newspaper.
But both Alice Bah Kuhnke (MP) and Helene Fritzon (S) are positive about investigating the so-called “audiovisual fee”.
– Denmark and France currently have a culture fee for streaming companies and it is time that we also investigate the issue in order to strengthen Swedish culture, emphasizes Heléne Fritzon.
V and KD have not taken a position on the matter yet.
Tough time for Viaplay
Streaming services have been going through a bath of steel lately. The market is saturated and, for example, Swedish Viaplay barely managed to avoid bankruptcy just a few months ago – among other things by selling off the rights to Ronja Rövardotter in order to raise cash.
Not fun for Netflix and Disney++ either
But other bastards have also gone bankrupt and in the price war that prevails with the other services, both Netflix and HBO, now Max, have had difficulty making a profit.
Large relatively new players such as Amazon and Disney+ have entered the game and if the companies are to make a profit, they must either cut costs, which was done in 2023 in many places, or raise prices.
This is what many streaming services are doing in 2024 to increase profitability.
Threatening with increased taxes in that period makes the uncertain market even more uncertain.
Bad on the stock market
In the last week, Netflx has fallen by 2 percent on the stock market, although there has been some recovery since the spring stock market crash 2022.
Disney has not recovered at all, but remains at about the same level as in the nightmare year of 2022.
The Film Institute’s proposal is rejected
The proposal comes from the beginning from Anna Cronemanthe Film Institute’s CEO, who also thinks that just under a third of the supply on streaming services should come from EU countries.
But that does not give the EU candidates much in the election.
– Good competition can provide increased quality and is desirable, says the EU candidate Jonas Sjöstedt (V) to TT.
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