International video-on-demand services such as Netflix are to be told they must set aside at least 30% of their content for local productions, the government has said.
The government says the objective is to ‘create opportunities for the production and creative industry sector’.
This emerged from a parliamentary presentation by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies’ chief director of broadcasting policy Collin Mashile.
‘Where video-on-demand subscription services come and operate in South Africa, everything that they show to South Africans in terms of their catalogue – 30% of that catalogue must be South African content.
‘What this means is that we are trying to create opportunities for the production and creative industry sector,’ he said.
BusinessInsider reported that while South Africa had a history of local content quotas for the government-owned SABC, this would be the first time that multinational companies are being targeted.
The report pointed out that this would not be unprecedented, noting that, in January this year, the French government said it was finalising a bill to force video-on-demand services from Netflix, Amazon.com, Apple, Walt Disney and others to invest at least 25% of their revenue derived in the country to fund local productions.
It said that, like France, South Africa was also considering a digital tax on global companies such as Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook.
According to the report, France is considering imposing a 3% tax on digital giants such as Netflix and Amazon, stating that this move has ‘never been more necessary’.