Audiovisual

Streaming services call the shots

Streaming services have dominated the Dutch audiovisual sector in recent years. Virtually all platforms active in the Netherlands and Europe are privately owned (96 percent), and a quarter are American. In 2024, they recorded revenue of over one billion euros in the Netherlands for the third consecutive year, and their earnings rose to new heights by a further 1,38 billion euros. As a result, they now hold more than 80 percent of the Dutch market. In contrast, compared to 2023, box office receipts actually declined in 2024 to just under 309 million euros. Consequently, revenues fell back to the level of 2017. That was also the last year that cinema revenue exceeded that of VOD. Since then, the revenue gap has widened very rapidly. In 2015, revenue from VOD and DVD and Blu-ray sales was still close to each other, at 126 and 100 million euros respectively, well behind box office receipts, which amounted to 276 million euros that year. Since then, VOD revenue has increased more than tenfold. At the same time, revenue from Blu-ray and DVD sales collapsed to 15 million euros in 2024. (Filmfonds 2025b, Tran 2025).

The number of VOD platforms and subscriptions available in the Netherlands increased rapidly during those years and now appears to be stabilizing. In 2024, there are a total of 49 VOD platforms available (including 'catch up'): 28 paid and 7 free SVOD services and 14 TVOD services. 28 paid and 7 free SVOD services and 14 TVOD services. The VOD monitor by the NVPI and the Film Fund shows that in 2024, 75 percent of Dutch households used VOD platforms. Both the number of platforms and the number of households using them have remained stable at the same high level over the last few years. The same applies to the use of SVOD platforms, where few shifts are visible either. The American Netflix has been by far the most popular SVOD platform in the Netherlands for years and is used by 57 percent of households in 2024. This is followed by the Dutch Videoland (32 percent), which saw a growth of four percent compared to 2023, and the American Disney+ (23 percent), which actually saw its market share stagnate. The same applied to Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, and Viaplay. After halving in 2023, NPO Start Plus saw its subscriber base increase somewhat again in 2024. The most popular TVOD platform for renting or buying movies online has been Pathé Thuis for years, but these TVOD platforms lag far behind in popularity compared to the platforms of streaming services (Filmfonds 2025b).
 
This spectacular growth over the past ten years goes hand in hand not only with declining cinema attendance but also with changing television viewing habits. In Europe, by 2024, a quarter of all television channels will be video-on-demand platforms, and one percent will be so-called VSPs (video sharing platforms). And in the Netherlands, viewers are increasingly finding their way to these channels, at the expense of traditional television broadcasters. According to research by the NMO, between 2015 and 2025, Dutch people watched less linear television each year, from an average of 190 minutes per day to 118 minutes per day. The Media Monitor of the Dutch Media Authority shows that many people subscribe to a streaming service not only because of the content offered but also to watch without commercials. Conversely, a large group indicates that they no longer have a television subscription because streaming services have replaced it. The majority of viewers under the age of 50 prefer watching via streaming services. Older viewers still do. a strong preference for television. Younger groups in particular have started watching substantially less linear television and more via SVOD services (Tran 2025, NMO 2025, Commissariaat voor de Media 2024).
 
The large profits that streaming services also recorded in the Netherlands with their exclusive content and self-produced films and series contributed little to development and production in the Netherlands for a long time, and compared to other European countries, the Netherlands was less successful in attracting investments from streaming services. Whereas ten years ago a large part of the revenue from DVD and Blu-ray sales flowed back into investments in new Dutch films, this is hardly the case anymore with SVOD. This is also corroborated by the 2024 study by Filmforward: the number of talent development programs by the major streaming services aimed at Dutch creators is limited, and initiatives often serve their commercial purposes primarily (Fontaine 2024, van den Elshout 2024).
 
After years of urging from, among others, the Film Fund and the Raad voor Cultuur is as of January 1, 2024, in accordance with comparable legislation in other European countriesThe obligation was introduced requiring streaming services with an annual turnover in the Netherlands of more than 10 million euros to invest 5 percent of their annual turnover in Dutch audiovisual productions. With this, the law aims to stimulate the cultural offering, strengthen the competitive position relative to international providers, and promote the diversity of offerings within the sector. At least half of the investments must go to Dutch films, series, and documentaries, and at least 60 percent to independent productions. This measure is expected to generate approximately 45 million euros in additional investments for the sector..An evaluation will follow in 2027 to assess whether the measure actually strengthens the Dutch audiovisual sector.
 
The past few years have shown a mixed picture regarding the influence of streaming services on the audiovisual sector. On the one hand, total investments in Dutch high-end series increased significantly in 2023 and 2024. Foreign investments in films have also increased over the past seven years from 5 million to 12,5 million euros per year, influenced by streaming services. The influence of streaming services also extends to producers: they are adopting American production models, but are also increasingly finding themselves in a position of commercial and technological dependency on those same SVOD platforms (Idiz 2025). At the same time, in 2024, for the second year in a row, streaming services across Europe produced fewer high-end series (a decrease of 5 percent) and fewer episodes per series (a 3 percent decline), and also awarded fewer commissions for the production of new films and series (7 percent less). It remains to be seen what these seemingly contradictory developments will mean for the investments of streaming services in the Netherlands in the coming years (Bruins 2024, Boonekamp and Lauwen 2024, Filmfonds 2025b, Schneeberger 2025c).
 
Although the increase in subscriptions and viewers has leveled off, the revenue of SVOD platforms continues to rise every year in Europe and the Netherlands. They currently dominate the Dutch audiovisual landscape. Due to this central position, the major platforms Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix, Prime Video, and Videoland jointly established a new trade association in 2025: Streamingdiensten Nederland. The new organization acts as a dialogue partner for the government, politicians, the audiovisual sector, and other trade associations. The chairman is former politician Zohair El Yassini..In late 2025, Netflix demonstrated its growing ambitions with its attempt to acquire the television and film studios of Warner Bros. and competitor HBO, Warner Bros.' streaming service. The company expected to attract many more subscribers with this much larger selection of films and series. Ultimately, the streaming service withdrew in late February 2026 after competitor Paramount made a higher bid (Benjamin 2025, van Bekkum 2026).

Cinemas in times of changing viewing habits

The dominant position held by streaming services in the audiovisual landscape now also threatens the revenue model of the Dutch cinema sector. The industry is under pressure and has seen visitor numbers slowly decline in recent years. Six years ago, the coronavirus pandemic marked the end of a long, uninterrupted period of prosperity for the Dutch cinema industry. The pandemic and the simultaneous continued growth of streaming services appear to have permanently changed visitor behavior. Cinemas are now looking for new ways to respond to this. At the same time, art house cinemas and film theaters are actually seeing an increase in visitor numbers.

From 2007 to 2019, the number of visits to cinemas and movie theaters almost every year, from 23 million visitors to 38 million visitors (see the figure 'Number of visits to Dutch cinemas and film theaters'). In 2019, these visitors accounted for cinema revenue of no less than 347,6 million euros – yet another record year in a row for the industry (see the figure 'Cinema revenue in the Netherlands'). The prolonged, mandatory closures due to the coronavirus pandemic in the years that followed caused a break in that upward trend. Since then, the sector has not reached these heights again. After visitor numbers recovered to 31 million in the period 2021-2023, the number of visitors dropped to 29 million in 2024 and even further to 28 million in 2025 – the lowest numbers since 2010. Cinema revenue also remains below the level reached in 2019. Incidentally, this is a trend that can be seen not only in the Netherlands but worldwide (Filmfonds 2025b, NVBF 2025, NVPI 2026).

Although the cinema industry initially pointed to the impact of the coronavirus years 2020–2022 and the prolonged strikes in Hollywood in 2023, viewing behavior now appears to have changed permanently. Despite more cinemas and seats, and more films being screened again in 2025 than ever before, it has so far not been possible to entice more visitors to return. Film theaters, arthouse cinemas, and arthouse cinemas, on the other hand, are experiencing good years: together, they have attracted more people every year in recent years, and by 2025, with 3,9 million visitors, they account for 14 percent of all cinema attendance. Many arthouse cinemas are therefore expanding. This picture aligns with an international trend, in which smaller films and blockbusters still perform well, but the large middle segment is starting to disappear (Bos 2025, NVPI 2026, NVBF and NVPI 2026, Dijksterhuis 2025a, van Zwol 2025, Filmfonds 2024c).

Visitors, particularly young people, are hesitant about the rising ticket prices, not only in the Netherlands but worldwide. Surveys from countries all over the world, from Europe to North and South America and Asia, consistently show this to be the main reason people do not go more often. Partly due to inflation, cinema ticket prices in the Netherlands have risen from an average of 8 euros to 12 euros since 2015. Research from 2022 in Italy shows that lowering ticket prices to 8 euros could lead to nearly 70 percent more visitors. In the Netherlands, research by the Bioscoopmonitor shows that by 2025, two out of three Dutch people will have visited a cinema, a percentage that has been slowly rising for several years. However, because visitors go less often each year, total cinema attendance figures decline annually. This does not seem to be unrelated to the ticket prices becoming more expensive every year. The figures also show that the higher the income, the more often people visit the cinema (Follows 2025, van Zwol 2026, Bos 2026).

In addition, cinemas are struggling with increased maintenance and energy costs and staff shortages. They are trying to win back customers by investing in more luxury and service and by offering unique viewing experiences. Unlike music venues, cinemas and art house cinemas earn little from hospitality. The 27 film theaters of the NFO, which mostly feature hospitality facilities such as restaurants and cafes within their buildings, collectively earned less than 10 percent of their total revenue through their hospitality services. Eye announced at the end of 2025 that it was facing major financial problems, partly due to loss-making hospitality and rising personnel costs for a workforce that had not increased (NFO 2025, Mechelinck 2025). Partly spurred on by the success of streaming services, cinemas are focusing on, for example, supplementary content or podcasts. Kinepolis organizes so-called Discovery Days around the release of new films. Since 2020, the Filmhuis in The Hague has had a boutique cinema featuring lounge chairs and two-seater sofas. An innovative concept is Pathé’s The(Any)Thing: an app allowing users to make their own choices regarding the film to watch, start time, intermissions, drinks, and snacks in 13 smaller screening rooms with space for 2-5 visitors. Additionally, following the success of the Cineville Pass, cinema chains are focusing on similar subscriptions. Cineville now has 100.000 members who can access 74 cinemas in the Netherlands. The average Dutch person goes to the movies 1,8 times a year, while Cineville Pass holders go as many as 25 times. Arthouse cinemas, together with online platform Picl, are focusing on a hybrid offering by appealing to people both online and offline. In this way, they hope to reach a broader audience, as people who watch films via both Picl and in the cinema do so significantly more often than viewers who watch a film exclusively online or in the arthouse cinema. Nevertheless, both the competition from streaming services and the challenge of drawing people to the big screen remain undiminished (Dijksterhuis 2024b, UNIC 2024, van Zwol 2025, Dijksterhuis 2025a, Dijksterhuis 2025b, Wybenga 2025, DEN 2025).

The Dutch film industry: the search for kw-AI-lity

Over the past ten years – with the exception of the COVID-19 years – an increasing number of films were made and released annually. In 2025, a record number of 542 new films were released. 84 of these were Dutch productions. The number of Dutch films produced also increased every year, from 58 in 2019 to 73 in 2024. Another warning sign is that in 2024, the Film Fund's Production Incentive, which has contributed to the growth of the Dutch film industry over the past ten years, was oversubscribed for the first time. Since the number of cinema visitors has declined since 2019, this means that individual films are attracting fewer and fewer visitors on average. Dutch arthouse films, in particular, have struggled in recent years, with the majority attracting fewer than 10.000 visitors. This aligns with the European trend where homegrown films still attract fewer visitors in 2024 than in the years 2017–2019, even though 24 percent more films were released than in those years. Perhaps a turning point has now been reached in the Netherlands: in 2025, fewer domestic films were released than the previous year. (Filmfonds 2020, 2025, NVBF and NVPI 2026, NFF 2024a, Schneeberger 2024b, Dijksterhuis 2025d, Edmery 2025).

At the same time, in recent years there have been calls and initiatives to invest specifically in talent development and the quality of Dutch feature films. This was already evident in the Principles of cultural policy 2021-2024 (Engelshoven 2019). This discussion was further fueled in September 2023 with the publication of a study conducted by the British research firm Olsberg SPI, commissioned by the Film Fund. This report shows that Dutch feature films are significantly less successful abroad compared to those from Belgium, Denmark, Austria, and Sweden. Although the Netherlands produces the most films of the countries studied, these are rarely selected for major festivals and almost never win major awards. The Film Fund has noted for some time that the Netherlands performs well in the fields of documentaries, VR productions, and short films, but is less successful in the field of feature films, despite significant investments in this genre. Those specific qualities also came to the fore again in 2025: the short animated film. Wander to Wonder by Mascha Halberstadt was nominated for both an Oscar and a BAFTA, I am not a robot by Victoria Warmerdam won an Oscar for Best Short Film in 2025 and From Dust Michiel van der Aa won the Immersive Competition at the Cannes Film Festival (Olsberg SPI 2023, Filmfonds 2025a, Broeren-Huitenga 2025).

In 2024, the Film Fund, Eye Filmmuseum, and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) are all focusing on stimulating quality and developing talent. In its plans for the period 2025–2028, the Netherlands Film Fund emphasizes the importance of sufficient attention and budget for the production of original, distinctive Dutch films and series. Eye Filmmuseum aims to promote Dutch films abroad even more effectively through its collaboration with the Film Fund in SEE NL, which has supported the international promotion of Dutch films since 2019 (Film Fund 2024a, Eye Filmmuseum 2024). At the same time, then-Minister of OCW Eppo Bruins established his new agenda for the integrated sector-wide approach also focuses on stimulating quality and national and regional talent development for emerging and more established talents. He also called for greater cooperation between private and public parties, and among public parties themselves. Therefore, the Minister commissioned research into a periodic monitor 'AV sector in beeld' (audiovisual sector in focus), to gain better insight into, among other things, the complementarity of public and private financing schemes. The Netherlands lacks fiscal-economic instruments for stimulating film productions, such as those that exist in neighboring countries like Denmark, Belgium, or Ireland. There is a widely shared desire within the sector to change this (Bruins 2024, NFF 2025).

Artificial Intelligence
The rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly leaving its mark on the audiovisual sector. After sound, color, television, digital technology, and the internet, AI is the sixth revolution in film history. AI can serve as an aid, as a tool for filmmakers, particularly in post-production. It is expected that hybrid filmmaking, using AI-generated elements, will increase significantly. However, AI also raises ethical and legal issues regarding copyright. And, unlike these previous five revolutions, it puts human creativity under pressure. By now, fully AI-generated commercials, television presenters, and actors have all become a reality (Arts 2025, van der Elst, Theirlynck 2025, RTL 2025a).

In November 2024, a study commissioned by CISAC already predicted that the global market for fully AI-generated AV is expected to increase to 48 billion euros in 2028, but that creators will simultaneously lose a fifth of their revenue. Translators are expected to lose 56 percent, writers 20 percent, and directors 15 percent (PMP Strategy 2024). These predictions have already partially come true. Research by the Boekman Foundation, initiated by the Creative Coalition, reveals that some camera operators, voice actors, writers, and composers in the audiovisual sector are already noticing that they are receiving fewer assignments, particularly from marketing and advertising. Moreover, nearly three-quarters of them fear further loss of work and income. This aligns with a more widely shared fear among workers in the Netherlands that jobs will disappear due to AI and that AI will partially or entirely replace their work. According to research by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) from 2025, three out of four adults think that jobs will disappear and four out of ten fear that this will also apply to their own job (Struijke 2025, de Ruiter 2025, CBS 2026).

Fair Pay, sustainability and regional film initiatives
At the same time, there are ambitions within the film industry regarding Fair Pay, sustainability, and regional diversification. As part of Fair Practice, a conceptual framework of 333 terms was developed in 2024, and a guideline for safe and healthy working in the audiovisual sector was drawn up with 32 principles.. In 2025, further practical instruments were developed. The research published in 2025 Additional costs of Fair Pay in the film sector concludes that the audiovisual sector still has to make big steps in this area. The costs for realizing Fair Pay amount to an average of 42 percent of the total remuneration and 23 percent of the total production costs. According to the researchers, these relative additional costs are “by far the highest of all parts of the cultural and creative sector examined to date(NFF 2024b, Geukema, Goudriaan, Vinken 2025, Hoffmann 2025).

Making more sustainable films is another ambition. Various steps are now being taken in this area. The emissions from a film can be substantial: where an average household emits around 19 tonnes of CO₂² emissions, that is 192 tons for a European feature film according to the European Commission. The Film Fund is committed to making filmmaking more sustainable and offers expertise in the form of sustainability advisors, advice and guidance in the production process and financing. Nevertheless, the green transition in the audiovisual sector is a slow one, with hardly any legislation at either national or EU level. The new EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) may yet change this, as it has required companies to report on their CO₂ emissions since 2023.² emissions (Linssen 2025, Munch 2025).

Hand in hand with this drive for sustainability is the desire for more regional film and talent development outside the Randstad (Melchers 2024). To stimulate this, in 2024 the (H)onest Film Code established and supported by eight regional film commissions, from Friesland to Zeeland to Limburg. In addition, the Fries Filmfonds was launched in 2025, the second regional film fund after Limburg. The province invests 341.642 euros annually until 2028 to support locally produced audiovisual productions. The Limburg Film Fonds, in turn, launched Studio Heuvelland in collaboration with the Filmfonds, which offers local producers and makers the opportunity to realize short and medium-length productions and further professionalize their professional practice (Dijksterhuis 2025c, Dijksterhuis 2025e).

Public broadcasting under pressure

The Dutch public broadcaster (NPO) has played an important role for years in the financing and programming of Dutch films and series. Through both financial support and the broadcasting of productions, the NPO contributes to the visibility and development of the Dutch audiovisual sector. This public function is now under pressure due to the large-scale budget cuts the NPO must implement in the coming years, which directly affect cultural offerings. Consequently, the unrest that has prevailed within the public broadcaster in recent years continues. In addition to addressing serious problems regarding social insecurity, the NPO and the broadcasters must simultaneously implement major budget cuts and fundamentally reorganize themselves within a newly formed broadcasting system.

In recent years, however, the public broadcaster has been particularly unsettled. Not only are there serious problems surrounding social insecurity in the workplace at the NPO and various broadcasters, but there is also great uncertainty about the future of the public broadcaster due to major, far-reaching cutbacks and reforms announced by the Schoof cabinet that took office in 2024.

New broadcasting system and budget cuts
In April 2025, then-Minister Bruins announced that he intended to drastically reform the national public broadcaster. The plan is to reduce the current eleven broadcasting associations to four or five by 2029. The NPO, NOS, and NTR will all continue to exist separately. Furthermore, the broadcasting system is to be closed for the first time: the option to join, which existed every five years for a new broadcaster with enough members, is disappearing. At the same time, the remaining broadcasting organizations will be given a legal obligation to work togetherthe perspectives, voices and needs of society as best as possibleto give a place in their offerings. Initially, Bruins wanted to present a proposal for the new broadcasting houses as early as October 2025. Following the fall of the Schoof cabinet in June 2025, this process was delayed. This was also because an initial inventory revealed that the broadcasters could not agree among themselves on the number of new broadcasting houses and the position they would occupy within them, as Bruins' successor, Gouke Moes, stated in October 2025. According to Moes, it is now up to the politicians. This means that the new House of Representatives elected at the end of October will determine the next steps (Bruins 2025a, Bruins 2025b, de Rek 2025, Beukers 2025b).

In addition to these reforms, the NPO is on the eve of drastic budget cuts. From 2027, the broadcasters must cut at least 106 million euros from a total budget that still amounts to 980 million euros in 2025. The new Jetten cabinet intends to reverse an additional 50 million euros in cuts made by the previous cabinet. In the summer of 2025, following the fall of the Schoof cabinet, the NPO and the Broadcasting Board unsuccessfully called for the cuts to be reversed because they affect broadcasters and programming as early as 2027, whereas the proposed reforms do not take effect until two years later. In the autumn of 2025, it became clear that the blows are hitting programming disproportionately hard. This involves no less than 72 million euros, approximately 10 percent of the total program budget. Cultural programs, in particular, appear to be the ones to be sacrificed. In early December 2025, various organizations in the audiovisual sector, from producers (NAPA) to directors (DDG) and screenwriters (Netwerk Scenarioschrijvers), reacted with alarm. The Cultural and Creative Sector Taskforce, a partnership of more than one hundred industry and professional organizations, responded with an open letter stating that more is being lost than just programming:Whoever erodes the foundations now will later lose the ability to pass on culture, language, and stories to new generations.” (Beukers 2024, Beemsterboer 2025b, Taskforce 2025, RTL 2025b, NAPA 2025, Beukers 2026b).

Social safety
In early 2025, Government Commissioner for Sexual Transgressive Behavior and Sexual Violence Mariëtte Hamer warned of the impact of the major budget cuts and reforms at public broadcasters on the improvement of social safety. She questioned “to what extent you can bring about a cultural change in these circumstances” and warned that “There is a risk that the importance of social safety will become secondary in the process.That unsafe working environment came to light after the report published in 2024. Nothing seen, nothing heard, nothing done: the lost responsibility of the Commission on the Conduct and Culture of Broadcasters, chaired by former Minister Martin van Rijn. The commission concluded that at all levels the normal responsibilities are “lost” and that “the subject of transgressive behavior is a widespread issue within national public broadcasting and deserves serious attention.” (Van Rijn 2024).

For the time being, the subject has been overshadowed, even though, alongside Hamer, the Media Authority had specifically noted that changing the work culture was proving extremely difficult at the broadcasters and the NPO itself. In early March 2025, NPO Chair Frederike Leeflang resigned after she, too, came under fire due to an unsafe working climate. Her successor, Jet de Ranitz, faces a major challenge regarding budget cuts, reforms, and this cultural change (Media Authority 2024, Hamer 2024, Beukers 2025a, Beukers 2026a, Beemsterboer 2025a, Bahara 2025).

Diversity, equity and inclusion in professional practice

In 2025, four new studies appeared within the research trajectory. Experiences and perspectives of female film and television professionals, conducted under the leadership of Utrecht University. These studies are a follow-up to the research report published in 2022. Better is not yet good: the position of women in the film and television sector 2011-2020, which shows that women are underrepresented within the audiovisual sector. Particularly in technical roles such as cinematographer and sound designer, their share is low: only ten and five percent, respectively. The research also shows that inequality between men and women increases when productions are more expensive and longer (Sanders 2022).

The four new follow-up studies enrich this picture somewhat. They show that women in front of and behind the camera sometimes experience discrimination, marginalization, and stereotyping (Sanders, Post 2025, Sanders, van Holt 2025). In addition, a study of over 250 male and female respondents reveals that a wage gap exists between men and women in the film industry based on age, work experience, and education (Sanders, Buijing 2025). Finally, an analysis of a representative selection of over 200 films and scripts from the period 2019–2023 shows a lack of diversity and that certain stereotypes recur in the ways women are portrayed in films and series (Sanders, Becker 2025).

The Netherlands is no exception in this respect: large-scale research among hundreds of thousands of people in the European audiovisual sector shows that women are severely underrepresented at 27 percent in the production of European films and series. Since 2015, when the number of women in film productions stood at 19 percent and in series at 23 percent, an increase has been visible, but at the current pace, it will take decades before there is equal male-female representation (Schneeberger 2025a, Schneeberger 2025b).

A positive development is that the share of female producers in projects awarded by the Film Fund accounted for nearly half of the total in 2023 and 2024. In 2024, a woman was the director in 42 percent of the projects and a woman was the writer in nearly 47 percent. However, the fact that there is still a long way to go is evident from the fact that women directed only 14 to 22 percent of the top 20 most successful films from 2019 to 2023, and their share even fell sharply to a meager 4 percent in 2024. This is related to the Film Fund's finding that women are more often involved in film productions with smaller budgets, such as documentaries and short or experimental films, but also submit applications less frequently than men (Filmfonds 2025b, Filmfonds 2024c).

You can't be what you can't seeThe research report commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) and published in 2023 had previously drawn attention to differences between ethnic groups within the audiovisual sector, both on screen and behind the camera (Crone et al. 2023). This report investigates ethnic diversity within the film industry for the first time. The research shows that while there appears to be some representative representation of ethnic groups both in front of and behind the scenes compared to the national average, filmmakers of color generally have less work, are often active in the sector for a shorter period, and are underrepresented in leadership positions. A large number of them personally perceive the level of inclusion as insufficient, which also translates into a more negative assessment of social safety in the workplace.