Amazon exports Channel France to the United States

Amazon promotes Channel France in the United States

the FigaroWritten by Caroline Sall, p. 28

The most popular French international video streaming platform is about to receive a major boost. from this wednesday, France channel It will be distributed abroad by Giant Amazon Firstly videoIn addition to services such as Paramount+, HBO Max, and Discovery+. Thanks to this agreement, the service, which brings together “the largest collection of French programming in the United States,” according to its founder Julien Verlie, will be available to the approximately 146 million Americans who subscribe to Amazon Prime. The new service will be available for $7.99 per month or $79.99 annually. Canal France, virtually unknown in France, “aims to promote French culture and creativity at an international level,” says its founder. Launched in 2017, in February this year, the UK-run streaming service BBC And iTV It had 3 million subscribers worldwide, mostly in North America. over the course of three years, britbox It saw the number of international subscribers increase by 300%. There’s still a long way to go, admits Julian Fairlie himself, who initially and more modestly aims for “a few hundred thousand subscribers over the next two or three years.” But the former CEO of the Canal + group for ten years and former director of commercial subsidiaries for France Télévisions is convinced France has a card to play on the other side of the Atlantic. He notes, “.5 million Americans visit France each year, 2.1 million speak French at home, and 1.5 million learn French as a second language. We are therefore dealing with francophones, as well as people learning French, and more generally, all Americans who want to In discovering the best of France. Initially, in 2019, the creation of Canal France, which was still in its infancy, was based on a simple observation: (0 A study conducted by Stanford University at the time put France at the top of the world in terms of cultural influence. There was no initiative for a platform dedicated to French creativity. And the French language, while at the same time the English streaming service Britbox began to fill up with subscribers in the United States, ”remembers Jullen Verley. At the beginning, the service was of little visibility. In September 2021 it went live on the Internet. It is difficult to appear in these conditions. Getting into the Amazon system The environment provides a powerful promotional tool.

Take advantage of the French brand’s appeal
This partnership will significantly increase the visibility and development of France channel“, hopes its founder. American families call Amazon several times a day. Aiming to capitalize on the French brand’s appeal, the platform brings together more than 4,500 titles from movies, series, cartoons, documentaries, magazines, and more. That’s about 2,000 hours of programming. As a result of agreements with several French manufacturers such as Gaumont, StudioCanal, Pathé, Newen (TF1), Mediawan, France Télévisions Distribution, Arte, Morgane Production, Cyber ​​Group Studios, MIC2, Le Pacte… which “nearly 70% of our programming has never been shown to an American audience,” says Julian Fairley. American consumers can access series such as Demin Nous Appartient and TandemFor movies like obs 117, Marius and Janet and the Fried Buffet and collections of documentaries such as Secrets d’histoire, Échappées belles, and Le Village préféré des Français. Programs are subtitled in English and, in some cases, also in French and France 24’s live channels can be accessed in both French and English. In addition to Amazon, Channel France is also available on Roku. And discussions with Comcast are ongoing. France Channel is currently owned by about a dozen shareholders, including Julien Verley and Bertrand Méheut – former head of the Canal Group – Netgem, animation producer Cyber ​​Group Studios and the US fund Pasadena Private Equity. The company was born with an initial investment of several hundred thousand Euros. If the deal with Amazon is successful in increasing subscriptions, “we could raise more money in the next six to 10 months,” says Julian Fairley. This time it will be about raising “several million euros to accelerate our growth in a very important way.”
(Continued in Le Figaro)