Netflix: Sacre vache! French resistance from the vestibuleurs de consommation

Netflix has so far skipped neatly over all the French hurdles that have tripped up many lesser foreign invaders in what has become a minefield of bureaucracy and xenophobia, especially for US multinationals. To some extent, Netflix has turned its French resistance to its advantage, gaining valuable publicity on the back of it …

[Warm Braw]

"France has one of the highest levels of VoD consumption per head in the world"

That's hardly surprising if you've ever tried to watch French TV.

It would be interesting to know how the VoD viewing figures compare between domestic and imported material - a few more statistics might support an argument that otherwise seems more of a polemic.

[James 51]

Re: "France has one of the highest levels of VoD consumption per head in the world"

A large amount of TV in France is unfortunately stuff like CIS that has been badily dubbed. There are a few shows like the Spirals and The Returned are well worth a look. The Tunnel isn't bad but The Bridge is better.

[Alain]

Re: "France has one of the highest levels of VoD consumption per head in the world"

If you don't want to watch them dubbed, you can watch them with the original soundtrack, subtitled. Since the advent of DTV (aka. TNT in France), you have a choice for most English-speaking TV series shown on the major channels.

Unfortunately, Canal+ (pay TV, 35+€/month) has the rights for most of the good ones :(

[captain veg]

blatant propaganda

Got shares in Netflix,by any chance?

-A.

[bpfh]

Joker in French is just "joker"

They use the same word </pendantic> :)

[ratfox]

Re: Joker in French is just "joker"

You chose to complain about this, instead of "vestibuleurs de consommation"??

[regadpellagru]

Re: Joker in French is just "joker"

"You chose to complain about this, instead of "vestibuleurs de consommation"??"

Ah ah ! Or the whole "french" title for what matters. Has anyone decoded what they meant by that ? Is Jar Jar Binks working at El Reg ?

[Irony Deficient]

Re: Joker in French is just “joker”

regadpellagru, my guess is that vestibuleurs de consommation is Registrais for “consumer watchdogs”.

[Spanners]

Another reason for Netflix Difficulty

I wonder if one of the unspoken difficulties that Netflix faces is that people will be able to vote with their eyes as to whether they want "chewing gum for the brain" type entertainment (perhaps not even in French) or proper made in France material that requires more mental activity than most people want to use when watching TV.

[ratfox]

Re: Another reason for Netflix Difficulty

proper made in France material that requires more mental activity than most people want to use when watching TV

Hmpf… Pfff… BWAA HAA HAA HAA HAAA

[DavCrav]

Re: Another reason for Netflix Difficulty

We can take a guess, because the French government passed a law requiring TV companies to have lots of French content. That presumably means people don't really want it, since if they did there wouldn't need to a law force-feeding it to them...

[T_o_u_f_ma_n]

Re: Another reason for Netflix Difficulty

You can either employ people to dub (often badly) other countries' shows and TV movies into French or hire local actors, production crews and TV presenters to create homegrown programs in French.

Oftentimes the quality of the end product is the same however one solution offers better prospects of employment for a whole industry than the other...

The law is a subsidy in disguise but I don't think the average quality of TV shows would suddenly rise if/when this particular law is repelled. There is an awful lot of cr*p on English spoken TV channels around the world too.

[James 51]

Re: Another reason for Netflix Difficulty

You've over looked the possibility that it's designed to prevent internationally owned stations buying material from related companies and not showing anything local. It is to prop up the industry in France but the qualify of their tat tends to be a bit higher that UK/US tat of a similar variety. Still a lot to filter out to get to it but that's true everywhere.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bzzt!

Has Andrew Orlowski moved to Faultline?: this piece hums strongly of his bonnet bees.

[John Watts]

Thank you

Thank you for an interesting and informative article.

[Anonymous Coward]

Google translate?

You're joking, right? You think the crap translation Google provides should be relied on by a business at all, let alone for legal documents, with only a quick read through by a lawyer required? You have got to be kidding me! This might take the prize for the dumbest and most naive thing I've ever seen on the Reg!

As for Google, they should just quit doing business in France. Pull all ads sold in France, disable google.fr, and block French IPs. Let them go after Microsoft....unless they decide to do the same. Then the French will have what they seem to want, an opening in the market for a French company to create a French search engine that complies with the laws of France!

[captain veg]

Re: Google translate?

The author clearly subscribes to the strangely common belief that all foreigners secretly speak English fluently, and only insist on practising their mother tongues in order to annoy Americans and Brits. It is of a piece with the assertion that France is a socialist country (it is actually deeply conservative; the current president is only the third of that persuasion out of nine since the war) and that House of Cards was created by Netflix, rather than the BBC.

-A.

[KroSha]

Re: Google translate?

"... that House of Cards was created by Netflix, rather than the BBC."

Especially since Netflix was showing the original version with the excellent Ian Richardson for quite a while.

[Just Enough]

Re: Google translate?

That was my first thought. Google Translate is fine for a very rough and ready translation of a web page, but for a legal document??! You sometimes suspect that people think that translation is just a case of lots of Find and Replaces. It's an idea so ridiculous you can only hope that it was supposed to be a joke.

But I don't think it's unreasonable that a company that wishes to do business in a country, should be legally obliged to provide its contracts and documentation in a language understood by a majority of the country's citizens. Calling it a "typically Gallic refrain" is the height of arrogance.

[John Hughes]

the leading broadband providers

So Numericable isn't a leading broadband provider according to El Reg?

Not that I care, I just watch netflix on the PS3 instead of the Numericable box.

[cortland]

"To some it will seem eerily close to reality."

Still good; CURRENT and inflammatory is OK.

[Anonymous Coward]

Rubbish article

So an international company has to conform to local law? Outrageous! Why should they? Bring on the TTIP I say.

The consumer watchdog's objection are no better:

1- Terms and conditions in French. That's crazy! Companies should offer contractual information in whatever language they want. It's not as if people read them, and it is moot anyway because:

2- Conditions can be changed at a whim. Of course they can. And consumers can change their payment conditions too. Free market I say!

3- Payment required, but no obligation of service and no measure of quality. Isn't this how things should be? Who do those frogs think they are? OK, "This has been a bone of contention between Netflix and ISPs elsewhere, especially in its home US market, where the likes of Verizon and AT&T had been accused of “standing on the hose”." But still, those cheese eaters pass the limits.

Try to report the same facts in a more neutral manner next time.

<exhausted by so much ignorance or bad faith>

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

So why be in France?

Unless France has erected a Maginot line around the country then why does Netflix have to be in .fr ?

It can just bill French subscribers to Netflix.co.uk / .de or .dutchy-of-grand-fenwick