France has a long tradition of defending its own national culture and language, to the degree of paranoia. For decades now, it has been illegal to air more than a certain percentage of non-French music on radio stations or to show non-French shows on TV channels. As the tide of streaming services has hit the country, new ideas are needed.
One of them is currently debated by the French National Assembly (parliament) that proposes to ban the ubiquitous Netflix button from all TV remotes sold in the country.
Reasoning behind this is that "too easy" access to Netflix (and other American streaming services that have their own remote buttons, such as Disney+ and Amazon Prime) is harming France's TV channels. So, withouth the easy-to-access streaming button on smart TVs, people would simply sit back and enjoy local TV channels instead.
France has already made it harder for TV manufacturers to promote foreign streaming services: since January, 2022 all smart TVs must highlight French streaming services in their menus over other services.
How France is going to force TV manufacturers to obey the proposed legislation is still somewhat of a mystery. Virtually all TV sets sold in France are the very same models that are sold in other European Union countries, too. Thus, in order to comply with the new law, manufacturers would have to make separate packaging - with crippled remotes - to French markets. Alternatively, manufacturers could remove the Netflix button altogether in entire Europe.
The Netflix button first appeared in American TV sets back in 2011 and were introduced in Europe in 2015.Permalink | Comments https://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2022/02/04/france-wants-to-get-rid-of-the-netflix-button-from-tv-remotes
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