It’s another American landing: on September 15, 2014, Netflix, the giant video streaming platform, arrives in France and nothing will ever be the same again.
. “Wolf in the sheepfold”
Initially, in 1997, it was an online DVD rental and purchase service, before becoming the platform we know today. Upon its arrival in France, Netflix claimed “more than 48 million subscriber households in more than 40 countries” (today “more than 278 million paying users in more than 190 countries”, market leader). Original programs, such as “Orange is the new black” or “House of cards”, are explosive.
“A sufficient reality” for Canal+ to polish CanalPlay Infinity (video on demand platform, 2011-19), Philippe Bailly, president of the NPA consultancy firm, explains to AFP.
“Don’t let the wolf into the sheepfold” is what we hear from “certain telecom operators”, rewinds for AFP Capucine Cousin, economic journalist at L’Agefi and author of “Netflix, Amazon, Disney & Co, the battle of the new audiovisual titans” (Dunod editions).
Netflix does not initially go through internet boxes, the preferred access for the French. Operators, such as Orange, consider the financial conditions to be insufficient.
“You have to be a bit of a geek,” sums up Philippe Bailly. But very quickly, Bouygues Telecom promises Netflix via its box for November 2014. Others follow.
Will this new entrant, like other foreign subscription video services, escape the obligations to finance creation imposed on French players? A decree was issued in July 2021. Netflix is proposing “250 million euros” invested in 2023 in French production, including “50 million in cinema”.
. “Upset” landscape
In 2016, “Marseille”, with Gérard Depardieu, was the first original French series “made in Netflix”. This production will not make an impression, unlike “Lupin” launched with Omar Sy in 2021, in “the top 10 most watched series in 70 countries”, boasts the platform. However, there remains a giant Marseille sign 13.70 meters high and 120 meters long above the Phocaean city.
It is above all the French audiovisual landscape which is “upset”, insists Philippe Bailly: “Disney+, Paramount+, Max, etc. would undoubtedly have ended up arriving, but their launch was a response to Netflix”.
Netflix is starting to “dictate the rules of the game a little by creating” “new uses, adopted by other more traditional broadcasters”, says Capucine Cousin.
Platforms “like TF1+, M6+, France.tv, are on much more ambitious levels than simple replay”, continues Philippe Bailly.
Without forgetting “the Salto attempt (2020-23), the desire of TF1, M6, France Télévisions, by joining forces, to adapt”, the expert further summarizes.
. Already in the “after”
In 2022, Netflix will reach the milestone of 10 million French subscriber households (latest data from the platform). Today, “we are over 40% of French subscriber households”, measures Philippe Bailly. “The second is Prime Video (Amazon), at around 30%. And the third is Disney+, at almost 20%”.
At the height of the Covid crisis, Netflix even became the symbol of cultural offerings when cinemas and performance halls closed.
But there is a return of the pendulum when the health crisis fades and inflation rises.
The platform then comes out with “new features that are a bit reluctant”, establishes Capucine Cousin. That is to say “cheaper subscription packages with advertising (5.99 euros from November 2022, compared to 7.99 euros in 2014 then without advertising, Editor’s note), while this was absolutely not the original DNA”. “And the end of the big tolerance of sharing subscriber accounts”.
Winning move: “between 10 and 15%” of French subscribers choose the offer with advertising, Philippe Bailly gauges. Here again, Netflix is ”copied, followed by the others”, Capucine Cousin rebounds.
The next steps are taking shape: “moving towards live, particularly around sports”, for the moment in the USA, outlines Mr. Bailly. The other is to have “video game studios develop games adapted from Netflix series”, to become a “broader, more global entertainment platform”.
Starting in 2022: the platform and the French publisher Ubisoft announce their collaboration around three games offered “to Netflix subscribers, including a new Assassin’s Creed game”.
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