Netflix’s Lupin, on the heels of Money Heist, suggests US TV dominance is waning as European and Korean dramas find international appeal
- The emergence of Netflix, but also Amazon and Disney+, has opened a market, and a shop window, for international streaming content, riding on HBO’s success
- European, South Korean, and Latin American companies have realised their premium content can have wide appeal, and their storytelling has evolved
The success of the French crime series Lupin on Netflix, riding on the heels of hit Spanish show Money Heist, may hint at a waning of US dominance on the small screen as ambitious European, Latin American and South Korean players kick down the doors on streaming platforms.
“Ten years ago, 90 per cent of creativity was in the United States,” says Pascal Breton, founder and head of the Federation Entertainment production company. “There were some good little local creatives, but it didn’t travel.”
But the increase in internet speed, the rise of on-demand television and the example given by American pay-TV channels, led by HBO, have pushed their counterparts abroad to bet on TV shows, having mainly relied on cinema and sport in the past.
Spiral, (originally Engrenages), Carlos, or Braquo, all produced for Canal+, highlighted a growing global appetite for non-anglophone TV productions and series.
They were followed by shows from public channels, such as the 2010-13 Danish political phenomenon Borgen and, from 2010, the British Sherlock that, despite being made in English, had a particularly non-American flavour.