France Télévisions CEO: “Unite against US OTT players”
November 22, 2017
By Chris Forrester
France Télévisions’ CEO Delphine Ernotte is calling for much greater cooperation between Europe’s public and private broadcasters in order to rival the influence – and potential domination – by the likes of Netflix and Amazon.
In a report in French newspaper Le Figaro, Mdm Ernotte says that discussions have already started with Italy’s RAI, Germany’s ZDF, Spain’s TVE and the BBC to create an entity in which each broadcaster will invest about €20 million to coproduce a €100 million original European TV series.
According to a note from investment bank Exane/BNPP, she also added that France Televisions would cooperate with Orange and Canal+ on the distribution front in France with the creation of a French SVoD platform which would allow access to OCS, CanalPlay and France Television content.
The bank says: “The aim of these propositions is to be able to rival with US giants such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney. These are only propositions, but this demonstrates that the new SVoD players are reshaping the audio-visual landscape.”