Global francophone streaming

Abstract

From Netflix to Canal +, from Arte to Illico, digital streaming platforms provide on-demand subscription screen content, and increasingly shape the ways in which francophone series and films are made and consumed. While most platforms began as libraries from which to stream existing content, since larger companies such as Netflix pivoted to producing original content in the mid-2010s, streaming services have emerged as important players in the commission and creation of screen texts in ways that both imitate and subvert the roles of studios and independent production companies. In his 2019 book Netflix Nations, Ramon Lobato describes the contemporary network of streaming platforms and portals as an ‘interconnected and highly dynamic…ecology’ (8), with the potential to generate new forms of media globalisation, as well as old forms of cultural imperialism. This special edition of French Screen Studies seeks to understand how the rise of transnational streaming impacts francophone series and films in the contemporary era. We are interested in how streaming services disrupt traditional production, distribution and reception networks and create new spaces and opportunities for transnational and translingual exchange. We also ask how links with traditional French funding sources (ex. Canal +/StudioCanal) and US tech companies (ex. Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video) can both perpetuate and challenge Eurocentric viewing practices and distribution strategies.