Mexico. In the course of the virtual biennium of the COVID-19 pandemic, the consumption of audiovisual content on the Internet has multiplied, especially those available on subscription video on demand or SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand) platforms.
In this regard, the National Survey of Consumption of Audiovisual Content (ENCCA) in its special edition 2020-2021, published by the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT), reports that 59% of the population consumes content online, while 51% of these make a periodic payment to a page or application. Precisely, this coefficient increased 13 percentage points, during the public health crisis, from its level of 38% of the ENCCA 2019.
Preference and Consumption of SVOD Platforms. It has also increased the average number of hours per week dedicated to the viewing of content on SVOD platforms, for example by 7.6% in the case of Netflix, going from 7.9 to 8.5 hours between 2019 and 2020-2021.
Additionally, the preference for existing and incoming global players has expanded, as are the cases of Prime Video and Disney+, which scaled their weighting from 8% to 26% and from 0% to 20%, respectively, among the total available platforms.
As far as national players, Blim TV and Claro Video are concerned, the preference of audiences does not register a statistic for the first in the most recent cut of the ENCCA, in 2019 it was 5% of the total. While in the case of the second, the choice of audiences in 2020-2021 has been reduced to 3%, from a level of 11% registered in 2019.
This shows the comparative and competitive advantages held by global players, as there is an imbalance in the conditions to invest in the generation of content, in the attraction, incubation and employment of creative talent, in the placement of advertising, and of course, in the promotion of national culture and identity.
Content Quotas for the Dissemination of National Culture. Countries and regions such as Europe (Spain, France and the United Kingdom), Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, South Africa, among others, have proposed and implemented quotas for the production and dissemination of local and/or national content applicable to audiovisual content platforms over the Internet.
This, with the purpose of leveling the operating conditions between players and generators of content of local and foreign origin.
These measures seek to protect and promote cultural heritage and national identity, stimulate the development of the local audiovisual industry, as well as generate comparative advantages in the creative and cultural industries. All this, with the ultimate aim of contributing to strengthening competitiveness and promoting the flow of investments in the generation of national content, given the growing diversity in the offer of platforms and forms of audiovisual expression of foreign origin.
This circumstance merits resuming the convenience of applying a quota of the catalog for independent national content on digital platforms, as an effort to promote the diversity and quality of national content, as well as to balance the operating conditions between players of national origin and those foreigners.
This would contribute, as has been seen in international experience, to a healthier competitive dynamic in the media ecosystem, with incentives to exercise resources for the development and exhibition of local creative productions, as well as to the promotion of national culture, expressions and identity.
Text written by Ernesto Piedras of The Competitive Intelligence Unit, CIU.
