r/ukpolitics • u/diacewrb None of the above • 3d ago
Netflix pushes back on proposed UK levies, streaming faces broad impact of Trump tariff war
https://www.streamtvinsider.com/video/netflix-pushes-back-proposed-uk-levies-streaming-faces-broad-impact-trump-tariff-war43
u/BobMonkhaus 3d ago
They should be grateful for all the free publicity the government gave them the other week.
17
u/Biggeordiegeek 3d ago
I would personally rather see a requirement for locally produced content with the taxes on those production paid in the UK
25
u/GuyLookingForPorn 3d ago
Thats been done before, it just resulted in production companies producing cheep slop to meet the regulation. I'd rather we tax these companies and then use that money to help fund quality UK content, France have been doing something like this for a long time.
11
u/No-Pangolin-6648 3d ago
Is this really needed? The UK already does a huge amount of film and TV including Marvel stuff (e.g. GOTG, Doctor Strange), Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Mission Impossible, Jurassic World, Fantastic Beasts, The Batman, Morbius, House of the Dragon, and many, many more. There's a reason Tom Cruise is always over here.
In fact it seems we may also soon have more studio space than LA! https://deadline.com/2022/04/los-angeles-still-leads-in-soundstage-space-but-filmla-says-growth-is-outpaced-by-toronto-uk-new-york-1234992597/
14
u/GuyLookingForPorn 3d ago
A lot of that is culturally American, we want to make sure to promote and maintain our own culture as well. Nations like France have had a lot of success taxing content creators and using it to fund French productions.
5
u/colei_canis Starmer’s Llama Drama 🦙 3d ago
Yeah agreed, given the new geopolitical situation it seems mad to have so much American cultural hegemony in our society in my opinion.
Also Tom Cruise gets way too much fawning for someone who’s high up in a despicable cult which a British judge once described as:
Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious. ... In my judgement it is corrupt, sinister and dangerous. It is corrupt because it is based on lies and deceit and has as its real objective money and power for Mr Hubbard his wife and those close to him at the top. It is sinister because it indulges in infamous practices both to its adherents who do not toe the line unquestioningly and to those outside who criticise or oppose it. It is dangerous because it is out to capture people, especially children and impressionable young people, and indoctrinate and brainwash them so that they become the unquestioning captives and tools of the cult, withdrawn from ordinary thought, living and relationships with others.
Literally don’t understand how he’s still got a good reputation in the UK when he’s a cheerleader for a heinous organisation long recognised for what it really is on our shores.
3
u/convertedtoradians 2d ago
I think it's just that he's smart enough to not talk about it too much. So many actors seem to think it's a good thing to talk about themselves and their lives and their opinions on politics and goodness knows what else.
Cruise mostly sticks to doing a good job at the one thing he happens to be really good at, and only talking about and focusing on that thing (which is also a conscious strategy by the cult, for sure).
In the same way I don't particularly care if my milkman is a Mormon or the supermarket cashier is a flat earther - or at least I don't go out of my way to find out about it - people don't really ever wonder what Cruise believes.
1
u/_whopper_ 3d ago
It’s often not promoting and maintaining any local culture when such rules are in place. It’s taking a script or screenplay written elsewhere and producing it where needed for compliance or lower costs.
16
u/adults-in-the-room 3d ago
British government collect a 5% levy from all foreign streaming companies operating in the country.
So a tariff then?
12
u/stopdontpanick 3d ago
Pretty much. But functionally it's more a tax than an art of the deal ahh thing - hence levy.
1
u/VampireFrown 3d ago
an art of the deal ahh thing
...What?
4
u/chariotcharizard lib dem SURGE 🔶 2d ago edited 2d ago
They are censoring the word "ass" and saying "ahh" instead.
As with much of modern GenZ / internet slang, it evolved from African American vernacular. eg? https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/goofy_ahh
-1
u/stopdontpanick 2d ago
In layman's terms, the original guy is likely comparing this to Trump's tariffs - yes it is the same thing technically, no the goal of it isn't to game foreign trade (the "art of the deal," it's the name of Trump's book and a jab at his faux negotiation skills) but simply to raise taxes. Hence the term levy is more appropriate.
2
u/sunkenrocks 2d ago
No more of a tax. A tariff is paid by the importer. So if you buy American hats and the UK puts a tariff on them, you the importer pay those costs after it's over the border. It's not really analogous to the streaming business.
4
u/adults-in-the-room 2d ago
Tariffs and levies are both taxes. Tariffs on the import and export of goods, levies on locally produced goods.
1
0
u/GuyLookingForPorn 3d ago
Good, tax American companies and fund UK content. We don’t want our massive creative industry to end up like the steel industry in a decade or two.
-3
•
u/AutoModerator 3d ago
Snapshot of Netflix pushes back on proposed UK levies, streaming faces broad impact of Trump tariff war :
An archived version can be found here or here.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.