Netflix Calls for Cap on French Content Investment Rules, Warning Current System Is ‘Unsustainable’
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- Netflix is calling for a cap on France's mandatory content investment rules, calling them "unsustainable" as it pursues a parallel lobbying push for earlier access to theatrically released films.
- Netflix now invests more than €250 million annually in French series, documentaries and films—including roughly €50 million in cinema—producing or financing 20 to 25 French works per year.
- France's 2021 decree under the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive requires subscription streamers including Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ to invest 20% of local revenue in French and European content, among the highest obligations in Europe.
- Netflix has lodged a Council of State appeal against windowing rules forcing it to wait 15 months after theatrical release—compared with six months for Canal+ and nine months for Disney+ after its own investment commitments.
- Those windowing rules are why Netflix cannot field films at Cannes competition, and why Greta Gerwig's "Narnia" will bypass French IMAX theaters and release straight to the platform.
- Brussels is preparing to revisit the EU directive this fall, the moment Netflix is targeting to pressure changes before American streamers' share of French content financing is projected to double.
Why it matters: Netflix is already France's largest single private film-TV backer at €250 million a year, yet remains locked out of Cannes competition and French IMAX release windows through regulations it calls disproportionate. With Brussels set to revisit the EU directive this fall, Netflix's "unsustainable" warning is timed to pressure a rewrite—after Canal+ secured a six-month window and Disney+ negotiated down to nine months by boosting investment commitments.
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