Volkswacht Bodensee - US streamers launch new legal fight against French content rules

The rules are part of wide-ranging state-backed protection of the French cultural sector that require broadcasters to invest in a range of artforms that have lower commercial potential than classic TV drama or film.

The US streamers are seeking an amendment to a government decree which, since 2021, has required foreign video platforms to finance French audiovisual production and cinema with a slice of their revenue.

Starting in January of this year, an updated version of the decree requires that 20 percent of their annual investments in France be allocated to animated programming, documentaries and live performances.

"These new rules suddenly double our obligation to invest in these genres, target streaming services exclusively and end up dictating our content offerings without taking audience expectations into account," Pauline Dauvin, vice president of Netflix France, said in an opinion column published in Le Monde newspaper.

The platforms separately filed appeals for "abuse of power" before the Council of State, France's supreme administrative court, after seeing an informal appeal to the prime minister’s office turned down, they told AFP, confirming a report by Satellifacts website.

"These new rules go too far ... When regulation takes precedence over editorial freedom, then diversity becomes an exercise in conformity, to the detriment of public expectations," said Dauvin, who noted that Netflix annually spends "250 million euros on series, films and French documentaries."

"Our appeal to the Council of State does not call into question our commitment to French creative production -- on the contrary," said a spokesperson for Amazon, the owner of Prime Video, in a statement to AFP.

"It aims to ensure a balanced, fair and legally sound regulatory framework, in the interest of the public, (content) creators and the industry," the US firm continued.

The appeals come with Netflix recently having announced it wants to work toward capping mandatory investments in French content, currently set at the equivalent of 20 percent of revenue in the country.

"This is not a sustainable system for us. It is disproportionate to what we want and can do in France,” the platform recently told AFP.

This latest appeal comes on top of other legal actions by the American giants.

Prime Video and Netflix have filed appeals against other rules that set the mandatory gap between a film’s theatrical release and its broadcast on television or on platforms.

The length mainly depends on how much distributors invest in French cinema, with Disney+ agreeing a deal of nine months, while Netflix and Amazon have to wait 17 months.

Stephane Le Bars, the head of the USPA union representing cinema and television content producers, defended the decree requiring mandatory investments in animation, documentaries and live performances.

"This new decree corrects the fact that platforms invest little in animation and, most often, do so by buying up already existing productions," he argued.

I.Stoeckli--VB