SFR “ready to fund” the French cinema – Europe1

The group SFR, which wants to boost its range of media and develop it in the cinema after the sport, is “ready to finance the development of the” works of cinema in French, said Saturday its CEO Michel Combes. “What we have done on the sport with the creation of linear channels, we intend to do so also in the field of tv and the cinema,” said Michel Combes during a debate with the profession in Dijon, france.

“Competitor to Netflix”. The media group and the telecom Altice, the parent company of SFR, announced in September the creation of a studio dedicated to the creation of films and series, and a “production company” tv channel. The next year, “I am convinced that (…) we have participated in co-production or co-financing of cinematographic works, and that we will probably have established means of dissemination, a bit new for the cinema, whether of the non-linear (such as a platform SVOD, video on demand, subscription, editor’s NOTE) or linear (chain),” said Michel Combes. “We try to position ourselves as a competitor to Netflix,” he said.

For a reform of media chronology. The CEO of SFR, which is said to be “ready to sign agreements with the profession,” said that his group had “the intention to intervene more in the co-production” the pre-purchase of the works. “But I do not forbid anything”. In “exchange” of this participation in the financing, however, it stated that he “wanted to be able to reflect on the modality of distribution of these works.” “If I want to finance a work and present it first in SVOD, why can’t I do it? he asked, calling on them to “evolve” the chronology of media, which governs when a film may be broadcast on various media.

The director general of Canal+, Maxime Saada, has been asking for these past few weeks, a reform of this chronology, for Canal+ to stream movies 6 months after their cinema release, instead of 10 months today. This proposal has been rather well received by the writers and producers to Dijon. “The proposal to Channel is a moment to really not miss for us producers,” responded Xavier Rigault, co-president of the Union of producers of cinema (UPC). Currently, four months after the release of a movie in the room, it can be sold or rented as video on demand (VOD). Ten months after its release, it can happen on a pay channel. 22 months after the release, it can spend on a chain free, and 36 months after, to be aired on SVOD.