Streaming services will be forced to allocate at least 20% of their revenues in France to the financing of French or European works, rising to 25% for platforms offering films less than 12 months after their theatrical release. The rate is increased to 20% for cinema and a significant part of the contribution – two-thirds in the audiovisual sector – would go to independent productions.
This is according to a decree published in the Journal Officiel of the French government yesterday, which affects subscription streaming services that operate in the territory, such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, among others. Streamers would be obliged to sign up to an agreement with media regulator, the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA), relating to their obligations.
The requirement presupposes a change to France's film window regime that is currently subject to renegotiation and is seen as a concession proposed by the government to balance the obligation to invest in local production that will be imposed on streaming platforms as part of the implementation of the European audiovisual media directive, according to Digital TV Europe.
Under the planned reforms now on the table, 75% of the amount allocated to cinematic production and two thirds of the amount for audiovisual production would have to allocated to independent productions. A specific proportion (40%) of the amount allocated for European creation would have to be for original French production.