Conversation with Manuel Alduy

This Friday, October the 21st, the 10th edition of the MIFC ended with a conversation with Manuel Alduy, Director of Digital and International Cinema and Fiction at France Televisions, moderated by Jérôme Soulet, Director of the catalog at Gaumont.

The man who arrived at France Televisions two years ago - "During which confinement I don't really know anymore", says Manuel Alduy with a smile - takes stock of his mission, particularly on the subject of heritage films. If the Covid period gave the illusion that the French audiences were fans again of television and heritage, it is mainly because they were locked up. "We had to get back to work to propose a diversified offer in which there was the classic cinema" confirms the director of the Cinema and the Digital and International Fictions of France Televisions.

The idea was to review the entire programming on a set of three channels and a platform. "Our mission is not to force a heritage film on people who do not want to see it," explains Manuel Alduy. To do this, he also takes into account the average age of movie watchers on the various channels, with 58 years old on France 2, 63 on France 3 and 67 for Friday nights on France 5, where the goal is to attract about 500,000 viewers to a heritage film. To have reasonable objectives and to make the france.tv platform a priority in order to attract a younger audience to heritage films.

On France 2, France 3 and France 5, the public service broadcasts 350 films per year, 40% of which are heritage films (only heritage films on France 5). Due to cinema obligations, if a channel broadcasts more than 52 different films per year, the group is obliged to create a new production subsidiary to contribute to creation. However, a new regulation will make it possible to pool these obligations between channels.

On the france.tv platform, they had to adapt and implement a new editorial approach that includes an offer logic associated with a global editorial logic within the group. Thus, three new feature films are put online every Thursday, with a mix of ages and origins. The programming also adapts to external events, such as during the Lumière Festival, where the platform offers Big Fish, a wink to Tim Burton, or, for example, a tribute to Patrick Dewaere. The programming can also be moved in the event of the death of an important figure of the 7th art, as in the case of the disappearances of Jean-Luc Godard, Bertrand Tavernier or Jean-Paul Belmondo, where curiosity and interest are rekindled. Finally, the idea is to make the non-linear, a complement to the linear. The linear one would be the event, the collective appointment when the non-linear one acts as a second chosen appointment.

The objective on the platform is to have the rights to the films for 3 months even if the group would like to push this standard to 6 months. Knowing that the non-linear adds some 30,000 additional viewers to a film broadcast in linear while the works only available on the platform have about 25,000 curious. The idea for France Télévisions is to succeed in creating a habit on the platform, to "become the place for all cinemas". The goal is to have 200 films (including about 100 heritage films) available per year, including 50 to 60 at any given time, and a 30-day replay to give word of mouth time. Manuel Alduy does not hide his desire to see cataloguers open their doors wider to the platform even if they tend to prefer TV broadcasts.

To conclude, the director of Cinema and Digital and International Fictions of France Televisions has two main goals: to revive (or arouse) the curiosity of the viewers and to educate their eyes towards more demanding works.