[lelandbatey]

France has many laws intended to protect their culture and the creators of French culture. For example, France is a supporter of and has implemented film quotas so that the majority of films shown in theaters/on tv must be from France[0]:

    "Television Without Frontiers" directive and quotas implemented by
    the French Government limit the number  of American films shown in
    French theaters and on French Television. The EU  Broadcast
    Directive was passed inOctober 1989 in an effort to protect and
    promote  the Europeancultural identity. The directiverequires that
    EU member-states reserve  a majority (51 percent) of entertainment
    broadcast transmission time for programs  of European origin.
    France lobbied hardest to pass the EU directive and has since 
    implemented the most stringent quotas within its national system.

[0] - http://www1.american.edu/ted/frenchtv.htm

[unprepare]

So, in france you have to wait 36 months after a film's release to stream it online.

Does that enable more french content to be produced?

Does it enable better french content to be produced?

Does it enable more french content to be consumed?

Does it benefit the creators of french films?

I simply am not seeing what positive impact such a law has. I can plainly see the negative impact, both on creators and consumers. I have a difficult time imagining a law banning your movie from being streamed for 3 years is of benefit to a french filmmaker.

[aktiur]

Keep in mind that the specific rules of the media chronology legal regime are set through interprofessional agreements. The specific delays for VOD services were added in 2009 and are mostly the result of an attempt by incumbents to protect their market share against internet entrants. The state agency (Conseil National du Cinéma) is actually pushing for a shorter period for subscription VOD (24 months), but only for actors involved in "French artistic creation" (basically all of them except Netflix).

All of this may seem hard to understand from a foreign perspective, but you have to realize that numerous rules apply to cultural industries in France. For example, channels must respect a minimum ratio of French movies and series in their programming. They also have an obligation to invest 3 % of their turnover in funding european and French movies. Thus, these French actors feel that Netflix's foreign status allows it to escape these obligations and they resent what they see as an unfair competition.