SMAD Decree: Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video challenge the diversity clause before the Conseil d’État
In early July 2026, Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video each lodged an application for annulment (recours pour excès de pouvoir) before the Conseil d’État against Decree No. 2025-1421 of 30 December 2025, amending Decree No. 2021-793 of 22 June 2021 on on-demand audiovisual media services, published on 31 December 2025 and in force since 1 January 2026. These three separate applications, brought against the same text, call for a progress report on what this litigation means in practice.
Origins and purpose of the amendment to the SMAD Decree of 22 June 2021
The amendment to the SMAD (on-demand audiovisual media services) Decree had been announced in an opinion piece by the Minister of Culture at the Annecy International Animation Film Market in June 2025. It stems in particular from a joint Arcom (French audiovisual and digital regulator) and CNC (French national film centre) report of November 2024 on the application of the original SMAD Decree, which had highlighted the low volume of original animation, documentary and live performance works commissioned by the platforms and eligible for the audiovisual support fund since 2022. Industry bodies (AnimFrance, USPA) criticised the platforms for favouring the acquisition of existing catalogues over the financing of new works.
The stated aim was therefore to end an imbalance: unlike traditional broadcasters, the platforms were not financing the renewal of creative output in genres that they nonetheless exploit.
The new SMAD Decree of 30 December 2025
By way of reminder, the SMAD Decree requires service providers, including those not established in France but targeting French audiences, to contribute to the development of the production of European and original French-language cinematographic and audiovisual works, based on their net turnover generated in France.
The Decree of 30 December 2025 introduces two main changes within this general obligation:
a diversity clause requiring 20% of the sums devoted to audiovisual production to be earmarked for animation, documentary and live performance, with a 75% share within that clause reserved for original production, in order to limit reliance on catalogue acquisitions;
the extension to animated audiovisual works of a rule already applicable to cinema: where a platform acquires, for a given work, rights covering territories other than France, only 75% of its investment counts towards its production obligations.
The text further provides that the allocation between the various genres covered by the diversity clause will be negotiated primarily within industry-wide agreements and, failing that, in the agreements concluded with Arcom. On this point, the agreements concluded with Netflix and Prime Video will expire at the end of 2026, and the one concluded with Disney+ at the end of 2027.
According to various statements by representatives of Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+, it is this sector-specific earmarking and the arrangements for implementing it, rather than the very principle of the contribution obligation, that lie at the heart of the platforms’ applications.
A litigation strategy set in a broader context
These applications reportedly follow unsuccessful informal approaches to the Prime Minister’s office (Matignon).
They also continue litigation already brought by Netflix in 2025 before the Conseil d’État on the media release windows (chronologie des médias), since joined by Prime Video (see previous article).
A common front is thus emerging among these same players, seeking to have the French regulatory framework relaxed in their favour, platform by platform, text by text.
Sources
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