On today’s episode of “Daily Variety” podcast, Variety’s Elsa Keslassy explains the battle that is brewing in France between Netflix and other streamers over the country’s programming quotas and its theatrical movie windowing rules.
Keslassy, who is Variety‘s international editor based in Paris, says France has a “love-hate relationship” with Netflix. The streamer has invested millions of dollars in French content but it is chafing at new regulations imposed in 2022 by the European Union that made a 20% quota of locally-produced programming for Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and other streamers active in the country.”
Netflix executives have been particularly vocal about what they see as arbitrary regulations on how and how much Netflix can invest in movies and TV programs produced in France.
“We have a love-hate relationship with Netflix in France. They are the number one streaming service. Everyone now has Netflix in France. But the issue is that we also want them to invest a lot of money in French content, because they’re popular here. So the French industry says, well, you’re making money off of our market, so you need to invest in French content, French series, French movies. Just like Canal+, for instance, which is the leading pay TV service in France, is investing a lot of money in local content,” Keslassy explains. “So the whole thing comes from this mentality that every player in France needs to invest in local content.”
