The French government this week said major streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+ must reinvest 20-25% of their annual French revenue into local content.
According to the decree, 80% of each platform’s investment must be used to produce French shows and documentaries, with the remaining percentage of that revenue used to produce theatrically released content, Variety reports.
After 18 months of work on the decree, France will be the first EU country to enforce the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS). The legislation is an effort by the European Commission to create an even playing field for broadcast and entertainment services in Europe. Other countries, such as Canada, are looking to do the same.
The new legislation prohibits streaming services from adding any theatrically released movies to their French libraries until three years after the film hit cinemas in the country. However, if the services spend the full 25% of their annual French revenue on local content, they’ll have access to films within 12 months of their release dates. If they opt-in to 20%, they’ll have access to films after 12 months or longer.
Netflix is already aiming to invest 20% instead of the full 25%, according to Variety. Other services have until July 1 to decide what they’ll do, though talks are slow-going, so the French government may have to step in and issue the rules if an agreement can’t be reached in time.
In January 2020, Netflix opened a new Paris office, which it said reflected “Netflix’s long-term commitment to France’s creative community, including over 20 French productions in 2020.” That was prior to the pandemic, but Netflix said in a recent earnings statement that Lupin, its French-language series “about a daring gentleman burglar played by Omar Sy, was not only our most popular new title this quarter on Netflix (76m member households chose to watch in the first 28 days), but it also propelled book sales of the novel in France.” Season two is coming up.
