Putting Fans First: How Streaming Platforms Could Use Executive Hires to Improve Local Content Discovery

Putting Fans First: How Executive Hires Can Fix Local Content Discovery (and How You Can Push Platforms to Care)

Hook: Tired of scrolling past the same global blockbusters to find shows made in your city, county or language? You’re not alone — viewers across EMEA and beyond complain that big streaming services surface Hollywood hits while local gems stay buried behind poor search, weak metadata and restrictive rights. The good news: smart executive hires and product changes can fix this. The even better news: fans have real leverage to demand better regional discovery tools.

Why 2026 is a turning point for local discovery

Late 2025 and early 2026 saw two industry moves that make local discovery a high-priority product problem. First, Disney+’s EMEA group reshuffled its commissioning leadership — promotions that signal a renewed emphasis on region-led programming and curation.

“We want to set the team up for long term success in EMEA,”

What’s changed in discovery since 2024 — and why it matters now

• AI-first personalization: Recommendation engines now power 70–80% of watch time on major services. But algorithms trained on global signals can under-represent niche regional titles.
• Regulatory pressure: Laws and standards (like the EU’s Digital Markets Act and updates to AVMS frameworks) are nudging platforms toward fairer access and greater transparency.
• Platform partnerships: Broadcasters are creating content for non-traditional platforms (YouTube to iPlayer pipelines), expanding how content reaches audiences.
• Ad-supported growth: Free and ad-tier models make it commercially viable to highlight local hits as discovery tools rather than purely subscriber retention levers.

Where streaming product and discovery fail local fans today

Before we prescribe fixes, you must understand the common failure modes:

• Weak metadata: Location, dialect, festival laurels and local awards are often missing from indexable fields.
• Algorithmic bias: Global popularity signals drown out regional interest.
• Poor editorial investment: Few platform teams dedicate local editors or curators who know the market.
• Rights and window opacity: Users can’t tell why titles aren’t available or when they will be back.
• Search friction: Limited filters for country-of-origin, language variant, or production company make the discovery journey long and frustrating.

Actionable ways new executives (like Disney+ EMEA hires) can improve UX for local discovery

Executives have both strategic influence and hiring power. Below are practical, staged interventions these leaders can put in motion — many are low-cost, high-impact product and editorial changes you can expect within months if executives prioritize them.

1. Create a Regional Curation Layer

What: Dedicated editorial hubs and curators for each market (or group of markets) that hand-select a daily/weekly slate of local hits.

Why it helps: Human-curated lists correct algorithmic blind spots and surface culturally relevant choices.

1. Hire or designate local curators in EMEA and give them a visible slot on the home screen. Metrics: engagement lift on curated slots, watch-through of featured local titles.
2. Expose curator profiles and reasoning — “why we recommended this” — so users trust selections and learn cultural context.

2. Build a Local-first Homepage Variant

What: A toggle or variant of the homepage that emphasizes “Local Hits” alongside global trending.

How to roll it out:

• A/B test a local-first homepage in a target market for 6–8 weeks.
• Measure metrics such as time-to-first-local-hit (how quickly a user finds a local title) and retention among cohorts exposed to the variant.

3. Enrich and Standardize Regional Metadata

What: Add structured fields for country of production, dialects, festival awards, regional star actors, and local distributor tags.

Concrete steps:

1. Create a metadata schema extension for regional tags and require it as part of commissioning contracts.
2. Run an automated metadata sweep to backfill missing fields for existing catalog titles.

4. Expose Search Filters and Advanced Discovery Tools

What: Let users filter by “Country of production,” “Dialect,” “Festival Winner,” “Local Directors,” and more.

UX details:

• Advanced search should be visible and mobile-first (not buried under menus).
• Offer pre-built filters like “Tonight: Local Comedies” and “This Week: Nordic Thrillers.”

5. Give Users Control of Algorithmic Signals

What: Allow users to tweak personalization sliders — e.g., “Show me more local content” or “Prioritize non-English titles.”

Why: Transparency and control reduce frustration and produce stronger engagement signals for local titles.

6. Negotiate Rights With Discovery in Mind

What: When signing licensing deals, make discovery commitments part of the contract: minimum homepage exposure, promotional windows and metadata requirements.

How executives can operationalize it: Embed discovery clauses into licensing playbooks — a legal/rights hire should coordinate with product and editorial teams so that newly licensed local titles get guaranteed visibility.

7. Partner with Local Broadcasters and Platforms

The BBC-YouTube collaboration is a template: content can live on platform A for discovery and then move to platform B for deeper consumption. Executives should:

• Make short-form teasers or behind-the-scenes available on social and free platforms (YouTube, local ad-supported channels).
• Co-produce festival recaps and clips with public broadcasters to drive visibility for regional creators.

8. Invest in Local Data Science and Demand Forecasting

What: Hire data scientists focused on micro-markets who can model local content demand from small signals: social mentions, regional search trends, festival buzz and local box office.

Outputs: Commissioning recommendations that predict which local projects will scale, and product triggers that surface predicted hits early.

9. Wearable & Living Room Discovery Integrations

Executives should ensure local discovery works across devices: smart TVs, voice assistants and mobile. Practical steps:

• Add voice-intent filters: “Find me Spanish dramas from Barcelona.”
• Use push notifications to highlight newly licensed regional hits to nearby subscribers (local time, local language).

10. Report and Improve With Local KPIs

Sample KPIs:

• Time-to-first-local-hit
• Local content conversion rate (view starts per impression)
• Regional retention lift
• Percentage of local titles in top 50 daily watchlist

Quick case study: If Disney+ EMEA does this right

Imagine Disney+ EMEA follows through on its recent promotions and executes a 90-day plan:

1. Assign Lee Mason and Sean Doyle dedicated editorial budgets and local curators in five pilot markets: UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
2. Launch a “Local Hits” homepage for each market and enrich metadata for 300 local titles.
3. Negotiate visibility commitments in new licensing deals and partner with public broadcasters for teaser content on free platforms.

Outcome (projected): within 3 months local watch starts up 18–25% in pilot markets, retention among regionally-targeted cohorts improves, and social share of voice for local titles increases — proving the investment case.

How fans and creators can lobby platforms for better regional discovery

Executives respond to product signals, internal KPIs and external pressure. Fans can influence all three. Here’s a concrete lobbying playbook you can use today.

1. Build a Data-backed Case

Don’t just complain — quantify. Use free tools to assemble evidence:

• Google Trends: show rising search interest for a local title.
• YouTube view counts and engagement on clips related to the title.
• Local box office or festival picks.
• Screenshots of poor search results and missing metadata.

2. Use Platform Feedback Channels — Precisely

When using “Send feedback” or support tickets, be specific. Copy this template and localize it:

Hi [Platform], please add an advanced filter for "Country of Production" and a homepage "Local Hits" row for [Country]. Here are data points showing user demand: [link to Trends, YouTube, box office]. Thank you.

3. Organize Collective Actions

Small, targeted actions work better than mass criticism. Start a petition focused on a single feature (e.g., “Add ‘Local Stars’ filter on Disney+ UK home page”) and present it to the platform’s regional support team and local press if it gains traction.

4. Work With Creators and Local Rights Holders

Creators and distributors often have direct channels to platform curators. If you’re a fan community, coordinate with the show’s producers to make a visibility ask together — platforms listen when creators request editorial support.

5. Participate in Betas and Provide High-quality Feedback

Platforms run regional betas for new discovery features. Join them, provide structured feedback and emphasize local use-cases. Beta engagement metrics are frequently used to justify wider rollouts.

6. Leverage Local Media and Influencers

Local journalists and influencers can amplify your case and put executives on the spot. Pitch a concise ask and provide the data packet (you built from step 1) — editors love neat evidence-driven angles.

7. Engage with Regulators and Public Broadcasters

If a platform systematically suppresses regional content or hides availability, regulatory complaints (especially in Europe) can force transparency. Public broadcasters — like the BBC — are also strategic partners for discovery; support their cross-platform experiments and highlight successes.

Practical templates for readers to use now

Below are ready-to-send prompts you can use in feedback forms, emails or social DMs. Replace bracketed fields.

• Support request (feedback form): "Please add filters for Country of Production and Dialect and a 'Local Hits' home-row for [Country]. Local demand evidence: [link]."
• Twitter/X/Threads DM to platform account: "Hi @[PlatformSupport], can you explain why [Title] doesn't show under 'Local' filters? Please add a dedicated Local Hits carousel for [Country]."
• Pitch to local press: "Streaming platforms bury [regional genre]. We have data showing [stat]. Asking Disney+ EMEA / Netflix to add a Local Hits feature."

Risks, trade-offs and how executives should communicate them

Improving local discovery isn’t free. Executives must balance editorial investment, rights costs and engineering bandwidth. The right communication strategy reduces friction:

• Be transparent about rights windows — tell users why a title is missing and when it will return.
• Explain algorithmic experiments and give users opt-outs for personalization changes.
• Publish regular regional discovery metrics (even internal snapshots) to demonstrate progress.

Measuring success: what good looks like

Executives and product teams should track both product and cultural metrics:

• Quantitative: uplift in engagement for local titles, percent of local titles in daily top-50, retention improvement among regional cohorts, conversion of free-to-paid in ad tiers driven by local content.
• Qualitative: creator satisfaction surveys, editorial pick amplification in social media, improved press coverage for local shows.

Predictions for 2026–2028

Based on the current trajectory, expect the following developments:

• More platform-broadcaster co-productions: Big global platforms will increasingly finance local pilots with public broadcasters as discovery funnels.
• Standardized regional metadata: Industry groups and major platforms will adopt shared metadata schemas for country, dialect and festival tags to ease cross-platform discovery.
• Discovery-as-service: Smaller platforms and aggregators will sell curated regional discovery modules to larger services as third-party add-ons.
• Audience-driven discovery controls: Users will gain more control of personalization sliders and genre weightings as platforms respond to transparency demands.

Final checklist for execs and fans

Here is a compact, actionable checklist you can use now.

For executives (product, editorial, rights):

• Hire local curators and a regional product manager within 90 days.
• Deploy a “Local Hits” homepage A/B test in 3 pilot markets within 60 days.
• Update metadata schema and backfill at least 500 regional titles in 120 days.
• Negotiate discovery commitments into new licensing deals.

For fans and creators:

• Collect evidence (Trends, YouTube, festival mentions) and submit a precise feedback request.
• Join platform betas and provide structured feedback.
• Coordinate with creators to amplify requests to platform curators and local press.

Closing: Why this matters — beyond convenience

Local discovery is about cultural visibility, creator livelihoods and the health of national film industries — not just convenience. When platforms surface regional stories, audiences win and creators get rewarded with attention and revenue. Executives who treat regional discovery as a product priority will unlock both commercial upside and goodwill. And fans who organize, document demand and lobby strategically can accelerate that change.

Call to action: Don’t wait for platforms to guess what you want. Start today: use our feedback templates, join a beta, or organize a small data-backed petition to demand a Local Hits feature in your market. If you want a starter packet — with a feedback template, Google Trends export tips, and a press pitch you can reuse — sign up for our free guide at free-movies.xyz/local-discovery (or DM us on X/Threads) and we’ll send it to you. Help us put fans first.

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