According To The variety France’s leading pay TV banner Canal+ Group has signed an agreement with local film guilds to invest at least €480 million ($503 million) in French and European films over the next three years.
The agreement comes alongside a pact allowing Canal+ to keep its access to movies at six months after their theatrical release. It took months of intense – if not rocky — negotiations with local guilds (including BLIC, BLOC and ARP) for Canal+ to reach this accord. Under the previous agreement that came to an end last December, Canal+ injected €600 million ($630 million) from 2022 to 2024.
Talks with Canal+ almost broke down after Disney+ signed an agreement with unions allowing them to access films at 9 months (from 17 months previously) with an investment of €40 million ($42 million) per year. The group CEO Maxime Saada even warned the Senate last month that Canal+ could potentially slash its investment by half if if they were not given a significant boost in the windowing schedule.
The deal announced today has been greeted with relief by the French industry — multiple projects for which Canal+ is a vital ally in the pre-financing stage have been on standby for months.
The French pay TV giant has traditionally stood out as the biggest financier of Gallic films and as such has been in pole position in the country’s strict windowing schedule. The latter determines the sequences of rights for each player, from free-to-air to global streamers, based on their level of investment in local pics. The system has protected the French theatrical business – which ranked as Europe’s healthiest in 2024 — and has also benefitted local production.
The Canal+ deal takes effect retroactively from Jan. 1 and will be valid until 31 December 2027. Under the renewable agreement, Canal+ has pledged to invest €150 million in 2025, €160 million in 2026 and €170 million in 2027 in French and European movies. The pay TV group has also committed to keep backing films with budgets under €4 million.
While Disney+ is now at nine months, Netflix will still have to wait 15 months to access movies after their theatrical releases because its percentage of investment in theatrical movies is proportionally less than Disney+’s, even if it actually invest more (roughly $50 million per Netflix). The bulk of Netflix’s investment in French content (an estimated $200 million) is dedicated to audiovisual works such as TV series, documentaries and movies aimed to launch straight on the service.
