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HBO Max has agreed to dedicate part of its mandatory investment in French and European content for documentaries and animation, embracing new French sub-quota rules that rival streamers are challenging in court.
The
agreement put HBO Max on a different path from Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ which have each lodged an appeal before the Conseil d’Etat, France’s highest court, contending that the sub-quotas were introduced without sufficient negotiation and impose obligations on streaming services that traditional broadcasters do not face in the same way. Pauline Dauvin, Netflix’s VP of content in France, even described them as detrimental to the editorial freedom in an op-ed published in Le Monde newspaper.
The dispute stems from a change to France’s so-called SMAD decree, the local implementation of an EU directive which has brought global streaming services operating in France to start investing 20% of their local revenue in European and French-language film and television production since 2021.
Then the end of 2025, France went a step further with new rules aimed specifically at ensuring that genres such as animation and documentary also benefit from the streamers’ growing investment.
Against that backdrop, HBO Max has opted to reach agreements with the French industry guilds, including SACD, the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers; SCAM, the Civil Society of Multimedia Authors; USPA, representing audiovisual producers; AnimFrance; and independent producers union SPI, among others.
The precise amounts devoted to the different genres will be determined based on the platform’s 2026 and 2027 fiscal years.
“These agreements reflect our desire to continue our commitment to French creative works and to develop productions capable of resonating with both French and international audiences,” said Erlinda Tabla, VP of legal and business affairs at WBD France.
“We are pleased to have established, together with the professional organizations, SACD, and SCAM, a shared framework that will allow us to continue this dialogue in the years to come and contribute to the global reach of French audiovisual creation,” she continued.
The French government and production guilds have defended the sub-quotas as a way of spreading streaming investment more evenly across the audiovisual ecosystem, notably the animation sector which has suffered from slower commissioning and is being threatened by job losses due to the rise of AI.
Isabelle Degeorges, CEO of Gaumont Television and president of USPA, said the agreement with HBO Max “opens up new horizons for audiovisual creation.”
“It demonstrates the vitality of our industry and our ability to explore new creative frontiers. This is excellent news for our producers, our writers, and our talent, as well as for the renewal of French and European creativity,” she continued.
Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, president of SPI and a producer of the animated feature “Chicken for Linda!,” said the agreement “helps recognize the essential role of documentary and animation” and “marks a new step in the integration of streaming platforms into the French creative ecosystem while further expanding the audiences for our works.”
