`Bodyguard' Can't Save European TV from Netflix
Europe’s broadcasters are teaming up to provide streaming video, but regulators are getting in the way of their efforts.
Live-streaming, the old-fashioned way.
Photographer: Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
In Europe, people are used to watching their TV for free. Or sort of. In much of the region – France, Germany, the U.K. – there’s a license fee: anyone with a TV set has to pay an annual fee of $100 to $200 for the privilege. The levies help to fund public-service broadcasters like the BBC and ARD.
The problem is that broadcasters are hemorrhaging viewers to streaming platforms like Netflix Inc. or Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime video service. And for TV stations whose biggest revenue stream is advertising, fewer viewers mean fewer ad dollars, compounding the flight to digital ad platforms like Facebook Inc. and Google.