First there was Scandi noir. Then gritty French crime dramas. It seems even Belgium has got in on the act. Now, the Dutch are fighting back.

Unloved and uncelebrated, the small screen industry in the Netherlands has been screaming out for help as its European competitors soaked up the international plaudits. Meanwhile, its home audience has increasingly turned to English language shows rather than the local fare.

But on Thursday the Dutch Council of Culture responded with a plan.

In a recommendation to which the Dutch government is obliged to respond, it said: “Production costs per delivery have been increased and fewer series are made with the same total budget. This step, in combination with the use of its own signature – the Scandinavian atmosphere – has resulted in great international successes for Danish (and also Swedish) series. Borgen, The Killing and The Bridge are the best-known examples of this.”

The advisory body suggested that the big streaming services – in particular Netflix and Amazon prime – be forced to ensure 15% of their library of films and programmes are made up Dutch productions.

Quotas of Dutch language productions should also be applied to cinemas, it said – a protectionist move pioneered by the French. And the council said a levy of up to 5% of profits should be applied to the streaming sites to be collected in a Dutch “audiovisual” fund to help the makers of homegrown programmes emulate the success of their European counterparts. The draining of TV advertising money by technology multinationals such as Google and Facebook has become an existential problem, the council said.

Like the Danish, an ambassador for Dutch TV should also be schmoozing with the executives of Netflix and other streaming services, to promote products from the Netherlands, the council suggested.

“The Danish government has appointed a so-called tech ambassador who is fully focused on maintaining relations with companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon and their Chinese peers,” said the council in the document published on Thursday. “The Danes see that the impact of these companies on the behaviour of their citizens is great. They consider these points to justify a full ambassadorial role.”

The council’s recommendation goes on: “The tech ambassador forges relationships and partnerships with the super platforms, exercises influence on its policy, signals the major trends and movements in the market and translates these into the political arena to help create decisive government policy. The council also recommends that a Danish ambassador be set up for the Netherlands in the Netherlands.”

The proposals have been met with a mixed response. The Dutch scriptwriter and director Frank Ketelaar told De Volkskrant newspaper: “If Netflix earns money here, it’s not unreasonable to spend it here.” On the mandatory quota on Netflix and Amazon Prime, he said: “That feels a bit pushy-pushy. You have to make sure that you make good things, then the viewers come naturally.”