[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.