{"id":235703,"date":"2025-07-03T21:09:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T21:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235703\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T21:09:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T21:09:24","slug":"u-k-streaming-levy-officially-rejected-by-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235703\/","title":{"rendered":"U.K. Streaming Levy Officially Rejected by Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPanic over, streamers<\/a> \u2014\u00a0the U.K. government has rejected calls for a levy<\/a> on platforms like Netflix<\/a>, Amazon Prime and Disney+<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe streaming tax had been put to the government by Britain\u2019s Culture, Media and Sport Committee in a bid to salvage local British production on high-end television and film, allowing public service broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV to claw back some of the finance hogged by streamers.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt comes as the booming production industry in the U.K. continues to skew toward the platforms. U.K. production spend reached \u00a35.6 billion ($7.9 billion) in 2024, a 31 percent increase since 2023, with \u00a34.8 billion ($6.5 billion) of this total coming from inward investment and co-productions.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn its response, published Thursday, the government did not agree with the proposed 5 percent levy, and instead expressed a wish to see \u201ca healthy, mixed film and TV ecology.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cInvestment from SVoD [Subscription Video on Demand] services contributes to the success of our domestic sector,\u201d the statement said, noting schemes such as Amazon Prime\u2019s Video Pathway and Disney\u2019s investments in the expansion of Bedfordshire\u2019s National Film and Television School.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe response cited Barbie and Bridgerton\u2018s \u00a380 million ($109m) and \u00a3275 million ($375m) contribution, respectively, to the U.K. economy over the last five years. The regency-era Netflix show has supported 5,000 local business in Britain.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn line with our objective to support a mixed ecology, we will however continue to engage with major SVoD services, with the independent production sector and with PSBs [Public Service Broadcasters] on how best to ensure mutually beneficial conditions for all parties,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe government said it would \u201cstrongly welcome\u201d increased investment in U.K. content and wants to see more successful co-productions between streamers and PSBs, it concluded, such as the BBC and HBO\u2019s His Dark Materials or the BBC Three-Netflix team-up on A Good Girl\u2019s Guide to Murder.<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix alone has invested billions of pounds into the U.K., working with more than 200 producers and 30,000 cast and crew members. \u201cNetflix members have already paid the BBC license fee. A levy would be a double tax on them and us. It\u2019s unfair,\u201d a source close to the matter told THR<\/a> when news of the levy first swirled. \u201cThis is a tariff on success. And our members are going to be punished.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe government response also ruled out a return to the European Union\u2019s Creative Europe. \u201cWhilst we do not have any plans to rejoin Creative Europe, we recognize these sectors\u2019 unique and valuable contributions to Europe\u2019s diverse cultural landscape and the economic benefits that relationship brings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSupport from the government in this area includes scaling up the U.K. Global Screen Fund \u2014\u00a0from \u00a37m ($9.5m) to \u00a318m ($24.5m) annually \u2014 in a bid to show commitment to increasing U.K. independent screen content\u2019s international<\/a> reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Panic over, streamers \u2014\u00a0the U.K. government has rejected calls for a levy on platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[30585,748,823,393,4884,522,451,1144,712,92099,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-235703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-amazon-prime-video","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-disney","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-international","15":"tag-netflix","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-streamers","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114791354728433842","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}