Tension is mounting in France with Canal+ threatening to significantly reduce its €220m annual investment in local French film following Disney’s renegotiation of its theatrical window down to nine months compared to the six-month window leveraged by the pay-TV giant.
Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada wrote a strongly worded editorial in Le Monde earlier this month in which he called the streamers strategic partners “but not at any price”.
Saada questioned the fairness of “allowing Disney to broadcast films nine months after their release for €35m a year, whereas Canal+ currently pays €220m for a six-month broadcast”.
Disney secured its shorter window (down from 17), after agreeing to invest 25% of its annual net sales generated in France. Netflix presently has a 15-month window, and is pushing for a reduced 12 months.
Disney has not officially disclosed how much it invests in French cinema annually.
Saada pointed out Canal+ and subsidiary Studiocanal “contribute more to French and European cinema than all the other players combined”.
He argued catering to the streamers could throw off France’s film financing ecosystem. “Selling off access to first-run windows thus jeopardises the first pillar of the model - cinema financing.” He threatened “Canal+ will be forced to adapt and reduce its investments”.
Less funding for French cinema would impact co-productions, pre-buys of international titles, and reduce the number of French films produced per year, putting a dent in local box-office share and impact French presence at international festivals.
Netflix
A spokesperson for Netflix, which invests some €50m in French cinema, including through pay-one deals, and €200m in further audio-visual production in France, told Screen the company is pushing for a reduced 12-month window from its current 15 months, secured when it was the only streamer to sign the official agreement with local guilds in 2022.
Noting that “we have always been open to being a part of the French cultural exception,” after Disney+’s reduced window, Netflix France said it plans to push for the same timeline with a similar forecasted investment, but wants to assure there is “a level playing field” among the various groups moving forward
Max and Prime Video, both of which declined Screen’s request for comment, are in talks with local guilds and the government to alter their agreements. Apple TV+ recently agreed to a four-year commitment to invest 20% of its turnover in local and European productions, but only for audiovisual productions, not cinema.
Canal+’s threats to cut funding also comes as the group continues to shift its own internal strategy and has made major moves to increase its footprint overseas including by floating on the London Stock Exchange and pulling its four pay-TV channels from the country’s direct-to-terrestrial platform late last year.
The company already has a presence in more than 50 countries, with around 60% of its nearly 27 million subscribers now based outside of France and the French giant could leverage its unique position as a content aggregator to rival the US streamers in which case it would be subject to the same minimum investment as other global platforms in France.
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