American digital broadcasters are invading continental Europe. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is planning to spend $1 billion on European programming this year, doubling its current budget, and adding foreign language productions. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is booming, with nearly a dozen original series available for streaming in Europe, up from just one in 2014. And Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) subsidiary HBO is increasing its international content by nearly 40%.
European broadcasters are worried that this invasion of competition will drive viewers away from their content. To prepare for the onslaught of content from American companies, these broadcasters are taking unusual steps, with former rivals creating new partnerships and traditional TV broadcasters migrating online.
"Consumers no longer care where they watch our content, so why should we still draw strict lines between linear and nonlinear, offline and online?" said Bert Habets, CEO of broadcaster RTL Group, which is launching streaming sites in six European countries.
For a model, the Europeans are looking to Hulu LLC, the subscription-based television streaming site owned as a joint venture by Disney (NYSE: DIS), 21st Century Fox (NASDAQ: FOXA), Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), and Time Warner. Hulu has reached 20 million subscribers since its foundation in 2007, with an ad revenue that surpassed $1 billion this year. The appeal of Hulu is its interface, which allows viewers to watch content from several different networks at once. "People want this overriding interface...it's confusing to have a different app for every network," said Alan Wek, the co-founder of media analysis website TVRev.
It might be hard to create a European Hulu given the tight and complex regulatory environment on the continent. Antitrust concerns may prevent broadcasters from cooperating, as might complications surrounding cloud storage and broadcast rights.
Still, content providers are forging ahead. Germany-based ProSiebenSat.1 Media has joined up with Discovery Inc. to create a service called 7TV that is trying to build partnerships across the continent. BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 have done the same. Spain's state-run RTVE has linked up with private companies Mediaset España and Atresmedia to launch streaming platform LovesTV.
The channels are also investing in more premium content in a bid to keep viewers interested - though they might have a hard time keeping up with deep-pocketed companies across the Atlantic. Netflix, for example, spent about $7 million per episode for The Crown, nearly five times what major British broadcaster ITV paid for Downton Abbey. The more companies can spend, the more they can draw production talent, and the better the production the more viewers - and ad dollars - the show will draw.
While it remains to be seen how European media companies will fare, one thing is clear: the media landscape is changing, and growing ever more digitized.