Roundtable : AVoD instructions : what potential for heritage cinema?

After VOD and SVOD, it’s AVOD, a platform of free video content financed by advertising, which is at the center of the debates at the Classic Film Market. Four professionals gathered to discuss the theme "What potential for Heritage cinema?”.

Wednesday, October 10, Le Karbone. During a round table discussion entitled "AVOD instruction : What potential for Heritage cinema?", the Classic Film Market tried to shine a light to this new way of video consumption and its possible impact on the future of Heritage cinema. Vincent Grimond, chairman and CEO of Wild Bunch, Gregory Samak, managing director of Molotov, Hubert Tilliet, legal director of the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD) and Pierre Olivier, co-secretary of the Syndicate of Heritage Film Catalogues (SCFP) joined the debate. This meeting was moderated by Laurent Cotillon, executive director of Le Film Français.

AVOD (Advertising Video On Demand), which means a platform that broadcasts free video content financed by advertising that the user can watch after watching commercials, is emerging in France even if the process is not yet well known by the mainstream audience. Gregory Samak, managing director of Molotov (a streaming video platform that allows users to watch French TV channels on their computers and other connected devices), tried to explain the concept of AVOD, which is "the transposition of VOD to free television”. A practice not yet really widespread in France, a modernization of television consumption that first started in China before gaining American territory. In the United States, the huge company Amazon has also launched its AVOD service, called IMDb TV, which was launched very recently in the United Kingdom. "French audience already consume AVOD almost without knowing it" explains Vincent Grimond. "TV replay services like Arte Replay are already AVOD. On top of that, they also put movies that have not necessarily been shown on their channel." The chairman and CEO of Wild Bunch reaffirmed that television remains the preferred audiovisual medium for French spectators, especially in groups or within the family.  

Vincent Grimond clarifies his thoughts: "In France, today, we don't make benefits with AVOD. But I think that we must position ourselves now for the future". On his side, Gregory Samak supports his statement: "There are 16,000,000 users of Molotov in France, out of 60,000,000 inhabitants, which is still significant. We have several million individual connections per month. Every month, there are between 10 and 15,000 new users. These are a lot of young people, between 20 or 25 years old, but also a lot of users aged 50 and over because they are interested in new technologies." Molotov managing director says that AVOD is nothing less than the transformation of free TV. He adds that the rights of right-owners to broadcast their films in this way "are worth their weight in gold". For him, it makes more sense for them to release their films on AVOD rather than on YouTube: "A classic Japanese film from the 1950s, in my opinion, has no place on this platform at all. It loses its value." Vincent Grimaud, for his part, qualifies: "Let's not confuse the platform with the service. YouTube is a very catch-all platform, but this dimension has not prevented the Arte channel producing quality content online."

Hubert Tillier, legal director at SACD, recontextualized that the first AVOD service was Rakuten's, which launched during the first containment. "It’s the only service that has signed an agreement with the SACD for authors to be remunerated." The classic remuneration of authors is, according to him, a "fairly simple model": other VOD platforms pay a percentage on subscription or advertising revenues. "This percentage is collected on all revenues without making any distinction between works that the SACD represents and those that it does not." The idea is that AVOD will become a similar model to TV channels but transposed to the revenue generated by platforms. "I see that it is not enough to remunerate authors with the uses that are made." The legal director of the SACD seems a bit more dubious about the potential of AVOD as far as heritage cinema and authors' rights are concerned. "I'm very skeptical about the competition that AVOD could bring to subscription platforms for a very simple reason: We know that about 85% of the money that comes from the platforms corresponds rather to series than to movies." Pierre Olivier, he explains his position on the subject: "There is no mistrust, but questions. We, the right owners, are constantly looking for ways to distribute films and therefore to bring them to a younger audience. Our priority is not to see the public die with distribution methods that would be in the process of weakening." The SACD co-secretary also points out the risks that "free of charge may damage." He feels that the notion of free could take hold in the minds of viewers and ultimately weaken the public's ability to pay for a service in general.

Vincent Grimond took the ball and ran with it: "We are not just fools, we know that a film has a value, that's the whole business of Wild Bunch, and I did the same when I worked for StudioCanal.  Our job is to give value back to films. And to give this value back, you need several things, such as support and a way release. Amazon is not the most beautiful box, but it is devilishly efficient. It's even monstrously effective." The chairman of Wild Bunch then delivered an anecdote about the creation of the catalogs he made when he worked for StudioCanal, explaining that the most requested films represented only 10% of the entire catalog, or 1 out of 10. Even if he reaffirms that AVOD does not currently make a profit, he remains convinced that it is a model that will be part of the future and that it is necessary to jump into the breach as long as the competition in France is not yet very present. "What Molotov is doing is absolutely exceptional. They started from nothing and they built a platform, it's the only one that exists and they have 16,000,000 users... We'll eventually convince these guys to watch a channel but give us time to do it. And of course the writers will get paid. We just need more time." Finally, he backed up his point by explaining that the "new generation wants to consume AVOD with as few constraints as possible," including, according to him, financial constraints.