I've cherrypicked the important lines there, so feel free to tell me I'm wrong if I've overlooked something important.
What you've got to balance is the revenue Disney are making from having Frozen available in the Netherlands in Netflix against the revenue they're making from DVD sales across the rest of Europe. Obviously I don't have the figures, but I would be absolutely astonished if the DVD market wasn't worth substantially more.
Then you've got to ask yourself whether releasing Frozen around Europe on Netflix will make them enough money to compensate for the DVD sales that they lose. Again, I don't have the figures (no one can) but if Disney were to decide that they believe they'll make more money on DVD sales than Netflix, it means no more Frozen on Netflix in the EU. I don't think that decision would be unlikely.
Eventually Frozen would appear on Netlix across the EU, of course, but we're talking years after release instead of months later as was the case with Frozen in the Netherlands. When the DVD sales have eventually dropped off enough, and Frozen shows no signs of slowing down yet.
I'm sure only Disney know their sales numbers, definitely. Coincidentally, I'm living in the Netherlands at the moment, and I've seen DVD and Blu-Ray copies of Frozen at the supermarket. So despite its availability on Netflix, there are still physical versions of the film on sale here, and I'd presume they're making bank. My argument would be that it appears that it remains viable for Disney to sell DVDs and a digital broadcast license to Netflix at the same time. I should also point out that it's not just Frozen on Netflix over here, but almost all of Disney's catalogue.
I'd presume also that they'd make substantially more from DVD sales than Netflix licensing, but it seems they can co-exist. All the same, the EU isn't really taking economic factors into account when drafting this law, for better or worse. It's espousing the European ideal of unpartitioning the marketplace, and spreading this to the digital marketplace as well. The reality is that it won't please very many content providers, who have enjoyed a semblance of an ability to control the availability of their digital content. However, I personally don't have a lot of sympathy for them. This law's intent, regardless of the consequences, is trying to ensure a fairness of access for all digital goods across the continent, local laws permitting. This would be great for Netflix, simplifying their licensing process for Europe, but not for individual provider control. Regardless, there's a lot of money to be made on a continent-wide license for Disney and others, and if they would want to ignore that in favour of physical sales, they can do that if it's more economic for them. At least it ensures fairness on the digital marketplace for all Europeans, even if we watch Frozen on Netflix together in 2022.
