The platforms will be able to broadcast the films 12 to 17 months after their theatrical release

The culmination of tough negotiations.

Television channels, broadcasters and film stakeholders have reached an agreement on a new media chronology to be signed on Monday, AFP learned from the Ministry of Culture.

The new agreement, the result of months of negotiations, which includes subscription video platforms for the first time, must be signed at midday under the aegis of Minister Roselyne Bachelot.

The media timeline governs when movies can be released, online and on TV in particular, in the months following their theatrical release.

These rules, which must protect creation, have been the subject of intense negotiations since the rise of streaming platforms which has upset the situation.

Platforms take precedence over free channels

Although its terms will only be set in stone after signing, the new agreement should allow Canal +, a major financier of French cinema, to retain its first place in broadcasting, six months after the theatrical release, according to a source close to the case.

Platforms will come next, based on their contribution to film production.

They will be able to broadcast the films between 12 and 17 months after their release.

They will thus pass in front of the free television channels, which will be able to do the same 22 months after the theatrical release, added this source.

Overall, the agreement should allow more money to be injected into French film production, she said.

The organizations representing cinema and Canal + had already announced in December that they had reached an agreement on the subject, the encrypted channel offering a "guaranteed investment of more than 600 million euros for the next three years in French cinema and European for Canal + and Ciné +”, putting a little more pressure to find an agreement with the platforms.

The latter, like Netflix, demanded a better position in the media timeline in exchange for their creative funding obligations.

The stakeholders had to agree before the beginning of February, otherwise the ball would pass into the government's court to decide.