OTT platforms: “No investment in local creation, no streaming in France”
September 3, 2019
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
Pushing OTT platforms to invest in local content production is what the upcoming audiovisual reform, promised by French President Macron, is aiming at.
“If the platforms don’t respect the French law, notably in terms of local content financing, they won’t be able to stream anymore,” French Culture Minister Franck Riester has warned this week at a meeting with media journalists.
The reforms arre designed to protect indie productions by obliging both broadcasters and platforms to invest in French and European productions at a minimum of 16 per cent of output. TV regulatory body CSA, which is set to merge with anti-piracy body Hadopi, will see its mission extended to digital communications, including the negotiations with the platforms.
In horse trading with the broadcasters, the Minister is eying narrowing the broadcast window that currently makes a film available on SVoD at least 30 months after the theatrical release.
Additionally, broadcasters will get the right to offer feature films anytime and any evening. The restraint was imposed years ago to protect movie theatres against SVoD platforms. A quota reserved for French movies will continue.
In terms of advertising, a third commercial break will be authorised into one-hour and a half, or more, TV movies and movies. Broadcasters will also be authorised to offer segmented and geo-localised advertising on IPTV boxes.
PSB media groups France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde and INA, are expected to unite in a joint holding group that will neither include French-German channel Arte nor French-speaking international channel TV5 Monde.
The complete bill is due to come before the Council of Ministers this autumn prior to being put to a parliamentary vote next January.