Netflix has been in France for ten years, and the streaming platform is hardly worried by any European rival. However, “nothing is hopeless”, according to Emmanuel Macron, who still thinks that a European SVOD giant can emerge.
October 20, 2020: Salto made its debut in France. The subscription video on demand (SVOD) platform brought together three major French TV channels (TF1, M6 and France Télévisions) with a clear but ambitious ambition: to compete with Netflix, the streaming giant. And then on March 27, 2023, Salto closed its doors. A huge waste.
Does Salto reflect the European inability to create a video champion to compete with Disney, Netflix and other Prime Video? It should be noted, in any case, that even three major French channels did not succeed in transforming the test, despite pooling their catalogs, including exclusive content.
Everyone realizes this, Variety Also. The magazine also took the opportunity of its exclusive interview with Emmanuel Macron, published in its October 9 edition, to gather the French president’s feelings on this failure. On these failures, even, because all attempts of the same kind have failed. Nothing emerged. Nothing was imposed.
Emmanuel Macron believes a European streaming giant can emerge
Despite an unsuccessful decade (Netflix arrived in France in mid-September 2014), Emmanuel Macron remains convinced that there is always the possibility of building a player as powerful as Netflix. Which would notably mean an enormous capacity for investment in creation: Netflix spends 17 billion dollars per yearfor comparison.
« Nothing is hopeless », he declared, listing some names of major players in creation such as Canal+ and Vivendi, but also in distribution (Pathé, Gaumont, MK2). And the Head of State recalled the existence of Arte, a Franco-German project in the field of television, which can be seen as an embryonic rival.
« What we are doing, on a very different scale but at the Franco-German and European level, with Arte is very important. We devoted a lot of resources to it », Underlined Emmanuel Macron. The public TV channel, contrary to what one might believe, is far from having dull and sluggish programming.
Arte displays quite notable creative dynamism, with works such as the cartoon Samuelthe chess series Rematch or the one on psychoanalysis sessions (In therapy). There is surprising content on Arte, but many people ignore it. It’s, in short, a bit like Apple TV+. It’s quality, but no one really looks.
Moreover, Emmanuel Macron notes this in his remarks, which could as well be addressed to Arte as to Canal+ (often cited as the origin of high quality films and series), and to other channels in France, as in Europe — let us cite, for example, the Nordic series Occupiedwhich imagines a Russian invasion of a Scandinavian country.
« We are very good at producing content. This is our strength. We have great actors, great screenwriters, great directors. We have independent producers, and we also have production groups who produce a lot of documentaries, short films, feature films and series “, he indicated.
The need to move to a European scale
France and Europe therefore produce content, underlined Emmanuel Macron. But in terms of the ability to change scale to act at the level of the European market, which has 450 million inhabitants, and then worldwide, the recipe remains to be found. The absence of Canal in the Salto project also highlights the limits of the exercise.
In this case, moreover, Canal+ has until now favored partnerships with American streaming giants, integrating them via its offers. These deals include Netflix, Disney, Apple TV, Paramount and Max. Among the very big players in streaming, the only thing missing is Prime Video, which is an Amazon exclusive.
Many obstacles come into play in the emergence of a European champion. The rivalries between the participants in the project, the regulatory gaps, the disagreements on the investments to be favored, the cultural differences or, more prosaically, the means that we want to agree to compete with the American giants.
For comparison, Canal+ invests every year 3.5 billion euros in creation. A figure which, according to the encrypted channel, includes cinema, series, documentaries and related productions, but also sport. A significant sum for a French channel, but which is nevertheless almost five times smaller than that mobilized by Netflix.
Source: www.numerama.com
