Ten years after its arrival in France, Netflix still has to deal with the media chronology which prevents it from taking advantage of the same broadcast window as some of its competitors.
The media chronology is one of the oldest French particularities in cinema, like dubbing, and it is not yet time to say goodbye to it despite the pressures of large SVOD platforms like Disney+ and Netflix.
Netflix still shunned by the world of cinema
Ten years since Netflix appeared in France. First seen as a threat, the SVOD platform co-founded by Reed Hasting has since made a name for itself very comfortable in the field of French production, particularly in the area of series and documentaries. Since its arrival in our latitudes, Netflix has invested more than 250 million euros. An investment well supported by its European obligations in terms of local production.
From DVD rental to SVOD platform
But there remains one area where Netflix continues to struggle: cinema. In ten years, she may have had enormous successes like Lost Ball or more recently Under the Seinethe platform has not yet succeeded in building a solid reputation within the small world of cinema, which continues to shun its productions in cinemas.
The fault – at least in part – is the media chronology, which the world of cinema continues to defend fiercely. If Netflix wants to release a film in theaters, it must then wait several months before distributing it on its own platform. Unthinkable, because its productions are its strength.
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And the release window has been revised to 2023especially after the menaces of disney not to release its big Christmas productions in cinemas, Netflix, due to a greater investment in French cinema compared to Disney+, Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Max, still has to wait 15 months to make it accessible its own films – and those it co-produces – in its SVOD catalog (compared to 17 for the others).
A deadline still considered “too long”
“15 months is way too long,” says Anne-Gabrielle Dauba-Pantanacce, spokesperson for Netflix in France, speaking to Tech&Co in the podcast La saga Netflix from BFMTV, “we are the only actor to have signed this [nouvelle] media chronology, we went from 36 to 15 months, it’s a quantum leap, but which is still far too long when we look at usage around the world or in most countries, we are more like three months away, a month and a half.
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“Netflix claims a “different” approach to cinemas: “We allow our subscribers to immediately see the content they have financed on Netflix. So in a constructive spirit of dialogue, we signed this [nouvelle] media chronology, which allows us, as part of our obligations, to acquire cinema films and broadcast them 15 months later.
“One of the ambassadors of this new media chronology is Jeanne du Barrysigned Maïwenn, with Johnny Depp at the top of the bill, which arrived on Netflix on August 16 exclusively. The 15-month deadline, even if we are now far from the 36 months before 2023, nevertheless remains unsatisfactory for Netflix: “If we look at the uses and the way in which the general public consumes almost everywhere in the world, we think that it is much too long to wait (…) there is certainly an opportunity to reduce this window after having had a satisfactory indoor operating time.
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“The fight for a more global change in the media chronology is therefore far from over for Netflix, and more generally for the entire SVOD sector.
The Netflix saga, a BFMTV podcast to be found on BFMTV.com and on all listening platforms.
