Netflix is doubling down on its pushback to mandatory content investment requirements in France with a formal appeal to the country’s Council of State, alongside Prime Video and Disney+, challenging new diversity clauses introduced this year.
The US streaming platform argues the rules are unsustainable and threaten diversity and creative freedom for the entire film and audiovisual industry in France and beyond borders.
In a letter in the French newspaper Le Monde on Monday morning (July 6), Pauline Dauvin, Netflix France’s vice president of content, explained why it was issuing such an appeal disputing a new sub-quota introduced in 2026 to the 2021 European Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS) decree that compels streamers to invest 20% of their local revenue in French and European films and series
Dauvin said the new diversity sub-quota, introduced officially on January 1, “doubled overnight” the obligation from subscription streaming services to invest specifically in animation, documentaries and live performance.
She argued such strict rules are unsustainable and would lead France to become dependent on global streamers, posing a threat to creative freedom in the country and throughout Europe. She said the compulsory measure “locks in a rigid editorial blueprint that ignores what audiences actually watch”.
Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ confirmed to Screen the streamers had filed individual appeals in late June. A spokesperson for Disney in France said the new sub-quotas are “disproportionate and discriminatory” and that, while the company was consulted by local broadcasting regulating authorities ARCOM and the ministry of culture’s DGMIC, “ we were not on the same page regarding the objectives or the basis of our discussions…We regret that the concerns long expressed by the sector were not taken into account in the final version of the text and that our request for an administrative review was rejected, despite the support of the European Commission and Arcom.
“We already invest a lot in French creation, but the new quota threatens our own editorial freedom and is counter-productive for the entire industry.”
Netflix
Netflix invests more than €250 million every year in French series, films and documentaries. Since the streamer officially launched in France in 2014, it has produced more than 160 local films and series, including global hits such as Lupin and fiction films Under Paris and Ad Vitam. It claims it has contributed more than €2 billion to France’s creative economy and supported tens of thousands of jobs.
Netflix was the first streamer to sign France’s media chronology agreement and now has a 17-month window between the time a film hits cinemas and its launch on the platform since the start of 2026, up from 15 months previously. Canal+’s media chronology window is shorter at six months, and Disney+ is now at nine months.
This obligation has led Netflix to completely skip any kind of limited, usually awards-qualifying, theatrical release rollout for its feature films and send them directly to streaming. It also means Netflix films are not eligible to play in competition at the Cannes Film Festival (although they are in other sections).
Netflix has been pushing to have its window reduced to 12 months to no avail, arguing the windowing rules are outdated and unfair since it invests more in local content than other groups overall.
Streamers unite
Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ confirmed to Screen each had filed individual appeals in late June. A spokesperson for Disney in France said the new sub-quotas are “disproportionate and discriminatory” and came abruptly “without consulting us”.
They added, “We already invest a lot in French creation, but the new quota threatens our own editorial freedom and is counter-productive for the entire industry.”
An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement the new mandate “imposes constraints that are disproportionate and incompatible with the existing legal framework”. It insisted the appeal “does not call into question our commitment to French creative production — quite the opposite. It aims to ensure a regulatory framework that is balanced, fair, and legally sound, in the interest of audiences, creators, and the industry. Adding new constraints, when the obligations under the AVSM decree are already the heaviest in the European Union, risks weakening this positive momentum rather than strengthening it”.
While Netflix said it wants to continue to work with local artists and producers, regulators and industry partners in France, Dauvin suggested the only way to do that in a sustainable way is through a more balanced system that “treats all major players - streamers and traditional channels alike, on a level playing field” and criticised French law she said is “endlessly adding new obligations that look virtuous on paper but undermine the very pluralism they claim to defend”.
Dauvin explained: “This is not about escaping our responsibilities or dismantling France’s cultural exception. It is about defending a principle that matters to every creator and every viewer: genuine creative freedom, supported by rules that are fair, proportionate and non‑discriminatory.”
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