France is finalizing a bill to force video-on-demand services from Apple, Netflix, Disney, Amazon and others to invest at least 25% of their revenue derived in the country to fund local productions.
The French legislation falls under a European Union directive requiring such companies to ensure that at least 30% of their catalogs are comprised of European-made content. The French Culture Ministry, which shared a presentation made Tuesday in Paris with Bloomberg, didn’t comment on how France is planning to measure sales of the platforms in France.
Netflix now has 6.7 million subscribers in the country, [CEO Reed] Hastings said in an interview with French news magazine L’Express. The company plans to invest more than 100 million euros ($111.5 million) in French productions this year, he said.
Parliament will debate the bill beginning in March and it would be enacted after a late-summer final vote, including details of the services’ obligations, the ministry said.
MacDailyNews Take: The requirement is part of a a ruling by the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education regarding rules on audiovisual media services:
In order to support the cultural diversity of the European audiovisual sector, MEPs ensured that 30% of content should be European, also in the video-on-demand platforms’ catalogues.
Video-on-demand platforms are also asked to contribute to the development of European audiovisual productions, either through a direct investment in content or a contribution to national funds. The level of contribution in each country should be proportional to their on-demand revenues in that country (member states where they are established or member states where they target the audience wholly or mostly).
The EU penalty on streamers for failing to meet the quota by the end of 2020 is unknown.
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