How Netflix and Prime Video are trying to change the French model
While Canal+ has just strengthened its historic position in French cinema, Netflix and Prime Video are increasing their appeals and negotiations to obtain a relaxation of the rules governing their investment and access to films.
To what extent can France impose its cultural rules on global streaming giants without risking pushing them to review their investments?
From the United States, the battle waged by Netflix and Prime Video against the French model appears to be a real standoff around a system deemed too restrictive by the American platforms. Variety has just published a vast investigation, which shows how the two streaming giants are increasing legal recourse and behind-the-scenes negotiations to obtain a reform of the media chronology or, at a minimum, reduce their investment obligations.
Because since 2022, subscription platforms must devote 20% of their French turnover to financing local productions. But beyond these financial obligations, it is above all the question of the distribution of films which crystallizes the tensions.
Unlike North America – and much of the world – in France, the media timeline imposes a delay on streaming services before they can offer films after their theatrical release, while Canal+ maintains a privileged window of six months, reinforced this week by its new agreement with French cinema. Netflix is now forced to wait 17 months after the release of a film in cinemas, due to failure to renew its agreement which expired at the end of 2025. A temporality which prevents for the moment the dual strategy on films like Narnia, which will follow, in February 2027, theatrical release (and in IMAX) and streaming in the USA. Not possible in France: it’s one or the other.
A situation that the American platform considers increasingly difficult to accept. “For us, it’s an impossible equation: more obligations, a less favorable broadcast window,” explains a source close to Netflix to Variety, hoping to change France’s policy in this area. The platform considers in particular that its massive investment in French creation is not sufficiently taken into account. Netflix thus claims to invest more than 287 million dollars per year in French films, series and documentaries, including around 68 million in films intended for theaters. Despite this, the platform did not obtain the 12-month window it hoped for and is now focusing its fight on another demand: capping the investment obligations imposed on streamers.
According to estimates cited by Le Monde, American platforms could represent almost half of the financing of French production by 2030 if their weight continues to increase. Netflix therefore believes that the current system risks becoming unbalanced. And the market leader is not alone in this cultural battle. Prime Video also wants to review the rules of the game and contests the way in which its obligations are calculated, since Prime is integrated into a subscription also giving access to delivery and other services. The platform is currently negotiating with ARCOM to define its level of investment and the broadcast window that could be granted to it. Amazon would like to obtain a window comparable to that of Disney+, which can access films nine months after their theatrical release thanks to increased investment in French cinema. But the French authority considers that Prime Video must make an equivalent effort to benefit from the same treatment.
At the center of all these negotiations: the historic agreement recently signed by Canal+, which committed to investing more than $1.1 billion in French and European cinema over five years in exchange for maintaining its privileged access to films. Any major modification to the system could call this balance into question.
Netflix and Prime Video have therefore decided to take the fight to the Council of State, contesting in particular the legal framework which imposes certain rules on them even when they have not signed a professional agreement with the sector. The battle is now also being played out in Brussels, where the European Commission must re-examine the SMA directive, with Netflix campaigning to limit the room for maneuver of States in their obligations towards the platforms.
For French cinema actors, these rules are a pillar of financing national creation. For American platforms, they represent a model that has become too rigid…
