Lhe vitality of French cinema is the result of a collective ambition of French publishers of free and pay television channels and film actors (theaters, producers, distributors), supported by the public authorities for more than fifty years to preserve the French cultural exception. The principle is simple: in return for its investment and compliance with various obligations, each operator has the right to exploit for a predefined period, exclusively and without competition, the film that it has financed or acquired.
The periods thus follow one another between the broadcast media and the public: cinemas, pay TV channels, video on demand and then free channels. This is what is called the chronology of the media, which is based on an agreement between all the players in the cinema, the result of long negotiations and sometimes painful compromises, but in the service of a common good: access for the the widest audience in the most diverse cinema.
Free-to-air television has always provided support for French cinema, its distribution and its diversity. Each year, France Télévisions, M6 and TF1 offer free to all French people a variety of films, comedies, thrillers, dramas, etc. which contribute to the development of a collective imagination. In 2021, they invested 144 million euros in 126 filmswhich otherwise would not have seen the light of day.
At the beginning of this year, the new agreement on the media timeline favored American paid platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Disney + by placing them before free televisions. Canal+ also benefited from an advancement of its window. Free television channels have played the game even though the arrival of these new players with international financial power is likely to subject them to increased competition. The channels have accepted that the pay platforms can broadcast the films before them despite the very modest additional contribution that these services agree to – of the order of 50 million euros per year, i.e. less than half of that of the televisions. free.
Maintaining the existing rules and exclusive broadcasting, as for all other broadcasters, is the least that could be expected and that has been obtained by the free channels.
Blackmail
However, as soon as the new chronology came into force, the American studio Disney, which had not wished to sign the text, reinterpreted it as it pleased in order to remove the exclusive exploitation of free television and so consolidate its exclusivity strategy for its own subscription service. In support: blackmail and threats of withdrawal of his films from cinemas. Netflix, which had nevertheless signed the agreement, took advantage of this wind of American protest to turn around and question it in a solidarity of circumstances.
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