Netflix – friend or foe?

The advent of internet-based streaming services, such as SVOD, has challenged the film and television industries. These new, often American, players were disruptive and very quickly gained financial and cultural dominance due to their fast-growing popularity among consumers. The entrance of these players affected production, distribution, exhibition, and consumption greatly, leading to a renegotiation of power relationships between different actors. In response to these changing contexts and newly forming imbalances, governments in various countries are implementing regulations specifically targeting non-domestic streaming services. The so-called ‘Netflix Taxes’ therefore involve some kind of financial reinvestment in the local film industry through investment obligations or levies, even if the streaming companies are not physically present in the territory. In 2022 Switzerland voted in favor of implementing its own variation thereof, the informally called ‘Lex Netflix’. This research examines the penetration and integration of foreign streaming companies into a national media system in an attempt to analyze the power relationship between new players and local actors. For this purpose, the public discourse surrounding the ‘Lex Netflix’ was utilized as a useful framework: More specifically, this paper wants to find out what the public discourse about non-domestic SVOD services’ integration into Switzerland is as seen through the press coverage about the ‘Lex Netflix’. This is done methodologically through thematic analysis of 76 articles addressing this new regulation, thereby revealing relevant patterns relating to SVOD services and their role within a national context. Potential traits of cultural imperialism and platform imperialism are thereby discussed. In conclusion, this paper argues that streaming companies inhabit a highly paradoxical role for a national film industry. Imperialistic traits can indeed be detected within the SVOD companies, while they are also often credited with a savior role for local filmmaking. Streaming service tend to simultaneously suppress and support local content production. Furthermore, imperialistic traits cannot solely be spotted as originating from streaming companies, but also from other penetrated countries. This is also specific to Switzerland due to its relatively small market size and its linguistic similarities to its neighbors and strong audiovisual players, Germany, France, and Italy. In conclusion, while power imbalances are evident in the public discourse, their specific implications for a national film industry are difficult to conclusively determine.