Global Streaming Platforms and European Cinema: A Crisis or an Opportunity?

HUM:Global Talk! with Christopher Meir, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

Nearly ten years after Netflix and Amazon Prime Video began making and distributing “original” films, we still know very little about the impact of the two companies and numerous other global streaming platforms on the European film industry.

Christopher Meir’s new book European Cinema in the Streaming Era is the first comprehensive study that seeks to illuminate the emerging dynamics between global SVOD platforms such as Netflix, APV, Paramount+ and others, and the European film industry by offering many case studies of European production and distribution companies that have worked especially closely with those platforms. The case studies inlude France’s Gaumont, Spain’s Morena Films, and Swedish-based Scandinavian producer/distributor SF Studios.

In his lecture, Meir will refer to three specific case studies to highlight larger patterns that characterize European cinema as a whole during this period dominated by the global streaming platforms. These patherns include growing dependence on series production, experimenting with new distribution models, utilizing platforms to mitigate the impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic, and others. 

Bio

Christopher Meir is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He has published widely on industrial issues in film and television history, including two monographs (Scottish Cinema: Texts and Contexts and Mass Producing European Cinema: Studiocanal and its Works), and two co-edited collections (Beyond the Bottom Line: The Producer in Film and Television Studies and European Cinema in the Streaming Era: Policy, Platforms, and Production) as well as numerous scholarly articles and book chapters on similar themes. He has also acted as consultant on industrial issues for European policy bodies such as the European Commission and Eurimages.

Registration

Register by writing to petar@hum.ku.dk.