The Government is set to block Coimisiún na Mean from imposing a so-called Netflix levy on streaming services, as Arts Minister Patrick O'Donovan said people are “paying enough for entertainment”.

Director of strategic policy at Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) Anthony Muldoon told Newstalk Breakfast that the majority of film and TV industry groups have been pushing for this levy for years.

“The wider film and TV sector group that includes the writers, the directors, screen composers, Animation Ireland, RTÉ, TG4 and Visual Effects Ireland, all support and have supported introduction of the content levy and have done so for the last five years,” he said.

“We think that the content levy is a brilliant opportunity to increase the amount of investment available for original Irish productions.”

Professional condenser microphone in TV production studio interior. Image: lya Galakhov / Alamy. 27 April 2014

One texter said the amount of European content on Netflix seems to far outweigh Irish media.

Mr Muldoon said that’s because most other countries already have content levy and investment obligations imposed on streaming services.

“This has been a discussion for nearly eight years; I started working in SPI in September of 2017 and the very first meeting I had with departmental officials was about the content levy,” he said.

“The previous cabinet and government approved the content levy legislation, the previous Oireachtas - cross party - supported the content levy as a solution.

“We were expecting that because the legislation that brings it in has been passed, because the Oireachtas had fully supported it and because the previous cabinet and government have supported it, that this year would be the year it was brought in.”

Hope for the future

According to Mr Muldoon, the levy would have been two-to-four per cent on the revenues of all streaming services, and also on TV subscription models such as RTÉ’s player.

“What it would have done was it would take a portion of their overall revenues, so say two per cent, and it would have put them into a single pot of money that the regulator Coimisiún na Mean and Screen Ireland jointly would have administered,” he said.

Mr Muldoon said he still has hope the levy could be passed in the future, as he has spoken to Dáil backbenchers who “really support this proposal”.

Main image: Boy watching netflix on ipad. Image: Marcel de Grijs / Alamy Stock Photo