French Windows: Culture Minister Reiterates Calls For Speedy Update Of New Rules As Issue Divides Industry
deadline.comFrance’s Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak told a film industry gathering on Thursday that new windowing rules, which came into force in February, were already retrograde in the fast-changing film, TV and streaming landscape, and need to be updated rapidly. “Thanks to your precious work and a long consultation, we managed to come up with a new media chronology, but it has already been impacted by the decisions of certain actors, or rather the wishes of certain actors who want to see it evolve more rapidly,” said Abdul Malak. “We need to collectively reflect on that… to see if an evolution of this chronology can reinforce the interests of the entire (cinema) chain,” she continued.
France’s notoriously strict release windows legislation underwent a radical overhaul after hard-fought, decade-long negotiations between all the main stakeholders in the local film and TV industries.
Under the new framework, most of the global platforms including Disney and Amazon are subject to a 17-month gap between the theatrical and online release of a feature film, while Netflix has negotiated a 15-month window in return for extra investment in local movies.
Prior to the new rules, the window was 36 months. Less than a year into its existence, however, the legislation is coming under pressure again with U.S.
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