Disney EMEA President Criticizes France’s Complex Film & TV Ecosystem

France’s state-backed film and TV financing ecosystem, known for its investment obligations for all content distributors and strict media chronology laws, is admired globally within the audiovisual industry.

However, not everyone appreciates France’s protective approach.

Jan Koeppen, Disney’s EMEA boss, expressed frustration with France’s system in a recent interview with the Financial Times. During this conversation, he detailed Disney’s $5 billion content investment plans for Europe.

While highlighting the positive aspects of other European territories, Koeppen lauded Spain for its “tax advantages and investments in infrastructure” but was much less enthusiastic about France.

He described France’s audiovisual sector as “uniquely complicated and complex,” and added, “It restricts competition, and it restricts consumer choice…We normally want to get our content to customers in the way that they can best enjoy it.”

Under France’s current windowing rules, global platforms like Disney and Amazon face a 17-month gap between a film’s theatrical release and its online availability. Netflix managed to negotiate a 15-month window by agreeing to additional investment in local films. Previously, the window was a lengthy 36 months.

Disney has opposed these windowing rules for years.

The contention heightened post-pandemic when theatrical releases were particularly strained. In June 2022, Disney announced it would bypass the theatrical release of “Strange World” in France, opting to release it directly on Disney Plus due to the chronology rules. The film premiered theatrically in the U.S. and much of the world in November 2022.

Koeppen mentioned to the Financial Times that Disney is in discussions with French authorities about potentially “modernising” the system.

“We’ll work with the different parties to see if that can be done,” he said.

The current windowing law, which came into effect in February 2022, took over a decade to negotiate and is set to last for three years from its implementation.

Any attempt to shorten these windows in favor of global platforms is likely to face opposition from France’s influential exhibition sector, which insists that the windows are crucial for maintaining a strong theatrical box office.

Source: Variety, Deadline