Last year, Dutch consumers streamed 2015 105 minutes of video per day, an increase of over 60% compared to a year earlier (65 minutes).
According to research commissioned by industry associations NLkabel, Netherlands ICT and CE FIAR.
The trade organisations are now saying this change in media usage behaviour should result in a reduction of the private copying levy, which is still based on an era in which media files were mainly copied and stored on private storage media rather than streamed directly while watching.
Online video and video on demand are growing fast, according to the study. On average, people spend 38 minutes per day watching online video compared with 23 minutes in 2014. Catch-up TV represents 28 minutes a day.
SVOD – subscription video on demand (Netflix or Ziggo’s MyPrime) accounts for 23 minutes a day and is more popular than ordering T-VOD (transactional Video on Demand), with an average of 16 minutes per day.
With these new figures in hand, the three associations are now asking to reconsider the private copying levy,
André Habets, director FIAR CE: “Despite the fact that the copying behaviour has largely been supplanted by streaming, the Foundation Thuiskopie 2015 collected over 20 million more than in 2010. Is not that special?”
Mathieu Andriessen, director NLkabel “The time devoted to Dutch media has been stable for years. so the growth of streaming and VoD must be at the expense of storage of media files. The damage to rightholders will decrease rapidly. The compensation through the private copying levy can therefore be adjusted downwards. ”
The survey shows that 88% of the Dutch population now uses streaming video services and 43% of streaming music services such as Spotify and Deezer.
Lotte de Bruijn, Netherlands ICT director: “There are increasingly fewer copies of songs and movies on devices such as computers, hard drives and smart phones. Storage is increasingly being replaced by streaming. The private copying regime should be adjusted accordingly.”