Netflix ‘will help local content in France’
June 28, 2018
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
Netflix executives Marzena Rembowski, in charge of institutional affairs in Brussels, Janneke Sloetjes, head of European public affairs and Damien Couvreur, who heads original content, have appeared before French Deputies and claimed a willingness to assist the country’s prodcos, but maintained Netflix will keep its business model.
They said that the US streaming platform will keep investing in European content and will conform to the rules imposed by the new AMS directive that 30 per cent of European content will have to be delivered and promoted by the platform.
In Germany, France and The Netherlands, Netflix has a current rate of 20 per cent. 250 French titles are available on Netflix France, and 650 globally.
Netflix explained that €2 billion has been invested into European productions since 2012 and 35,000 people have been employed this year on all Netflix EMEA productions. Some 2 per cent of Netflixrevenues in France is going to be taxed in France to beef up the funding that CNC distributes to local creators.
Meantime Netflix has asked for its 20 per cent VAT rate be reviewed since others such as Canal+ have negotiated a 10 per cent rate.
The platform, however, showed little interest in proposed reform of the movie release window in France as it doesn’t envisage releasing its own films theatrically, but argued the window would prevent the development of the French audiovisual system in being competitive. Compared to other countries, Netflix can’t offer an acquired film until 36 months after its theatrical release in France. The platform argues that its arrival in other countries has decreased the level of piracy, which was not the case in France, because of the length of the release embargo window.