How Amazon & Netflix are supercharging France's format market
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Loading... - Aiden Connolly
- 03 Nov 2022
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France’s format market is in flux as growing demand from local broadcasters and streamers fuels a new wave of unscripted programming across the country.
Both Amazon and Netflix have enjoyed recent success with format adaptations this spring, when the second season of comedy gameshow LOL became one of Prime Video’s most-watched series across all genres and origins.
Not to be outdone, Netflix had hip-hop talent competition Nouvelle École, or Rhythm + Flow France, which remained in its Top Ten in France for five weeks in a row. Both, of course, were then also renewed.
Cultural resonance
Part of the reason for Nouvelle École’s success lies in hip-hop’s deep roots in France and as Lucy Leveugle, Netflix’s director for creative strategy in EMEA, tells TBI, the show offered “an authentic story” that was “really relevant to [French] culture.”
French production company Black Dynamite, known more for its documentaries than its format adaptations, was chosen because of its connection to the hip-hop community and Leveugle says the result was “a reinvention” of the original US show that debuted in 2019.
It was, she adds, a series that developed its own personality, with new sets and backgrounds compared to the US version. “It’s an interpretation rather than an adaptation, so you get a local feel,” Leveugle explains, adding that it was introduced over three weeks rather than made available for bingeing all at once. “We do that sometimes – it’s a conversational show and we felt it was really important to build on that conversation.” Read More...
