The production power fuelling the French connection

L-R: Engrenages, Le Bureau Des Legendes, HPI, and Dix Pour Cent are among the most successful scripted shows to emerge from France in recent years

Nick Edwards explores what has made France such an attractive location from which to launch international groups and speaks to companies across Europe to find out how they benefit from the country’s ecosystem.

It is almost two decades since gritty crime drama Engrenages (aka Spiral, 2005) changed the world’s perception of what French TV drama could be. Since then, France has produced many ground-breaking hits, from Lupin and Le Bureau Des Legendes to Dix Pour Cent (aka Call My Agent!), to name but a few. Yet arguably even more impressive is the impact that French production and distribution outfits – from StudioCanal and Federation Studios, to Mediawan, Newen, Gaumont and Banijay – have made on the global stage during this period.

“Regulation is behind much of the explanation,” says Pascal Breton, founder & group chairman of Federation Studios, with his comments highlighting that France was the first country in Europe to reach an agreement with Netflix and Amazon to regulate content investment and rights ownership as part of the European Union’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (these started to be put into law in 2021).

Not only is the ownership of IP shared with the streamers, as well as pay and free TV channels, but there is also an obligation for companies to invest 20% of their local revenues back into new French productions.

There are almost no players like Gaumont, Banijay, Mediawan or Federation in Germany, Italy or Spain

Pascal Breton, Federation Studios

Today, France is in a unique position in Europe. “There are almost no players like Gaumont, Banijay, Mediawan or Federation in Germany, Italy or Spain,” says Breton. To achieve this environment, Breton and his industry peers sat around the table with President Macron and figured out how to work with the new demands of the streaming giants.

“Everything belonged to the streamers, but we managed to negotiate with the government and created a system that really shares the ownership of the shows between the channels, the streamers, the producers and the creators,” he says. “They have obligations to invest in our shows and they have an obligation to share the intellectual property of these shows,” he adds.

This legislation has not curtailed opportunity or creativity. “These ring fences do help to protect local producers and content, and does give producers an advantage there,” says Marc Lorber, the former Lionsgate head of TV acquisitions and co-productions, who recently returned to his role as an international format, programming & production consultant, “but not at the risk of just making programming that fits simply to the guidelines and won’t travel well.”

Lessons for others

The expansion of French groups on the international stage, however, had been occurring years before the more recent streamer developments. Indeed, France was already ‘well’ regulated, meaning it faced little ideological resistance when it came to implementing these most recent changes.

Thus, it has moved faster and been able to secure larger investment targets than almost any other European country.

Legislation has also built something of a shield around an industry that consists of not only supplying public service broadcaster France Télévisions and commercial rival TF1, but also multiple other models such as Canal+, Arte, M6 and OCS.

“Highly entrepreneurial with a long history of creating shows that travel,” is how Philippe Levasseur, head of Newen Studios International, describes the character of the French market.

And like cinema did in the 1950s, French TV is now attracting the world’s attention. The country has always been famous for producing great film directors, ever since the days of Truffaut and Godard, but writers of TV have arguably made less impact on the global stage. However, this has changed in recent years and France now boasts the kind of talented and experienced showrunners – including Engrenages’ Anne Landois and Le Bureau Des Legendes’ Éric Rochant – it once lacked.

Liaison

Scripted surge

International buyers are also being drawn into French programming by the ecosytem’s ability to provide a fertile environment for innovative IP. Unifrance-CNC’s recent export data, revealed in September, showed that sales-generated revenues were up 15.4% to €214.8m ($231m) – their highest level ever.

Shows such as Vortex and Women At War both sold to Netflix, while young adult series About Sasha was picked up by Disney+, while shows including Marie-Antoinette, as well as ongoing procedurals High Intellectual Potential (HPI) and Deadly Topics, also travelled.

There have been format successes too. Call My Agent, one of the biggest recent French-language success stories, has inspired multiple remakes from countries and regions as disparate as the UK, South Korea, the Middle East, the Philippines and Poland.

HPI had already proven successful in TF1’s Thursday night cop show slot, which led to more than 100 territory deals, and a remake was recently taken from pilot to series by ABC in the US, to be known as High Potential. Showtime, meanwhile, has announced it is remaking Canal+’s Le Bureau Des Legendes, with George Clooney on board to direct.

“Now, the Americans respect us as creative partners, business partners and collaborators. That was not the case a decade ago,” says Levasseur.

Well-crafted French action movies, such as Netflix’s AKA (in which former footballer Eric Cantona has a role), have also performed internationally for streamers, while auteur style series such as Bardot, which was pre-sold to Netflix in France and beyond, underline the opportunities for a complimentary relationship between film and streaming in France.

Packaging internationally recognised French culture into TV shows that can be sold at home and abroad is a well drilled procedure: Canal+ series Versailles was a typical example and the model can also be applied to docuseries such as Netflix’s Tour De France: Unchained, which are again engaging sizeable chunks of the international audience, as well as domestic.

European advantage

In straightened times, co-productions are also becoming increasingly important for ambitious projects in Europe. Lorber points out that “the EU remains the largest aligned block of countries within which to co-produce and in doing so has access, for instance, to funds from Creative Media Europe and Eurimages, as well as entities like the Alliance (France TV, Rai & ZDF) and the European Broadcasting Union.”

Additionally, since Brexit, the UK has lost eligibility for some of the soft money that enable many of Europe’s prestigious co-productions to get off the ground, so it is a less attractive lead partner on such ventures.

France, however, is well placed to helm projects. Around The World In 80 Days is a case in point: written by a Brit, based on globally recognised French story, starring major European actors and financed by pan-European partners (France, Germany and Italy). Its producer, Federation, is now working on a similarly structured espionage thriller on which Eric Rochant will be showrunner.

And Hollywood does not only want to adapt French shows but to work with French companies too. Plan B, the multi-Oscar winning production company, is co-owned by Brad Pitt and Mediawan, which in turn has launched a US-based division.

Elsewhere, Anonymous Content (True Detective, The Revenant) partnered with Federation in 2021 on a joint venture, Anonymous/Federation, based in Paris, that is focused on developing and producing premium TV and film for both French and global audiences.

Importantly, France’s large but independent production groups also offer a rival model to Hollywood’s huge studios and associated streaming platforms. “There is a real point of difference in being able to utilise the European powerhouse and being able to stand somewhat independently of the US market,” says Kate Bennetts, MD of Ringside Studios (a joint venture with Newen), which made the French/English drama Liaison, staring Vincent Cassell and Eva Green for Apple TV+.

Sabine de Mardt is CEO of the German branch of Gaumont. She believes the company behind Barbarians, The Wasp and the upcoming German House offers something unique: “While many international companies in Germany focus on entertainment formats, Gaumont – unlike hardly any other company – looks back on a rich and long history of cinematic and serial storytelling with long-standing successes.”

Women At War

Across the spectrum

France has also supported a range of groups: StudioCanal, for example, operates in nine major European markets, plus the US, Australia and New Zealand, while smaller but fast-growing outfits are also emerging, such as Asacha Media Group (AMG), which has a controlling stake in Red Planet Pictures in the UK, amongst others.

Each company has its own global strategy and some see themselves as essentially international entities rather than primarily France focussed. Others see expanding their footprint outside of France a priority, whilst others do not.

“We are quite happy with our current size and definitely not looking to aggressively expand,” says Levasseur of TF1 Group-owned Newen, which has offices in 10 countries. “I like knowing the managers of the individual companies personally, and we are mindful of owning companies that compete in same territories.”

For a UK perspective, Bennetts says Newen has assembled “a like-minded, collaborative group of companies from all across Europe”, adding that this also allows companies like hers to “discuss ideas and generate projects” with sibling firms across the group.

“Gaumont is an independent, truly European family-owned company,” says de Mardt. “It is a rare phenomenon nowadays in a growingly competitive margin focused industry.”
Indeed, with so many disruptive forces running roughshod through the US landscape, France’s seemingly more sustainable model has become attractive to global streamers, too.

“Streamers don’t want to spend 100% of the budget but they may want to spend 50%. For that they are willing to leave us free TV rights and worldwide rights. Their priority is to exploit the show locally,” says Breton. And this is part of a wider trend.

“Owning 100% of rights is becoming increasingly unusual,” he continues. “Free TV doesn’t want everything because they can’t afford to pay for everything. Even pay TV can’t afford to own 100% of the rights forever, it’s too expensive. So, more and more hybrid models are being created between French traditional channels such as TF1 and Amazon, for example.”

There is also a greater emergence of countries seeking to protect local content and their own soft power initiatives and cultures. “Not just in France,” adds Lorber, pointing to developments in Denmark and Australia. It is also worth noting that several of the world’s major TV markets take place in France. “With events like Series Mania, MIPCOM and La Rochelle [Festival de la Fiction], I’ve found more engagement by and in the market than ever before in France.”

Couple these positive attributes to the volatile share prices, strikes and general existential uncertainty in the US and the appeal of making a show in Europe grows further. “Of course, it’s also appealing to make a show for 10 times less than it would cost you at home. Nowadays there is the added bonus that a French show may become popular in America too,” says Breton, reflecting on how streaming has led to US audiences consuming more imported drama.

As a result of these positive factors, the climate in the French industry is in stark contrast to much of the rest of the world. Whilst the fall-out in the streaming world and beyond continues, France is in a good position comparatively.

“Two years ago it was easier to sell to Disney or Netflix,” admits Breton, “but they still need more shows for their audience and [to meet] their obligations. New players such as HBO, Apple TV+ and Paramount+ hadn’t really started serious commissioning before the new legislative changes were implemented. And, of course, they need content if they wish to stay (which they do). They all need drama and they all need French drama, and of course all the local players still need content,” says Breton.

The Federation chief admits the local market “is slowing down, but not that much” and he points to an underlying reason why so many international groups have emerged from France. “It’s been stable for the last 12 months and I think it will be stable for the next two years. It’s not very fast-growing but it is a growing market and it’s a strategic market. It’s not extremely profitable but it is stable.”

These are key factors for investors when it comes to backing companies that have the intention to grow and it’s also a convincing argument that the country’s model should be explored by others.

“It’s strategic because if you have the best talent, the best movies and the best series, that’s a lot of IP that will have a lot of value in the future,” says Breton.